


Need You

by Areumdawonhho



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Distopian Society, F/M, LET'S BREAK ALL OF THE RULES, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 05:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14418771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areumdawonhho/pseuds/Areumdawonhho
Summary: A famous mediator once said, “To love one of another aura is to destroy that aura. And to be loved, is to be the one destroyed. This is why we have the code, this is why we uphold the code.”Everyone has their colour, everyone has their place. But what if one man wasn't in his place?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on MBBA and with encouragement is now going up on here, too. Enjoy~

The colours. They determined everything.

Everyone’s aura had a colour, and that colour decided your whole life. Each colour had their own place in society, and that was how they’d managed to survive for so long. There were the red warriors, the grey mediators, the blue innovators, the white healers, the purple engineers, and the green farmers. If everyone stayed in their place and did their designated job, life would go on.

What a boring life it was, though.

Rose was a healer. Her days were repetitive. See patient, heal patient, find new patient. Always the same things too – warriors who had made stupid decisions, farmers who never got their equipment checked, engineers who skipped safety protocols. You’d think this would all be better managed, but the Mediators were only interested in keeping colour order.

Villagers of different colour auras weren’t supposed to interact with each other more than what was absolutely necessary, either. There were stories – old folk tales – that told of how one’s aura could be affected if in the presence of another, stronger colour aura for too long. Because of that, Rose never saw the same patient twice.

While all the colours lived in their own separate village within the city, and were forbidden in other sections unless authorized by a Mediator, there was one place that was neutral and all colours gathered daily: the centre square.

Surrounded on all sides by high stone walls, the square was the place to be for the villagers. It was where the farmers came to trade their goods, the engineers showed off their work, the warriors showcased their ability, and the innovators announced their newest and biggest thing.

The idea of the centre square was exciting compared to everyday life in your village. Except that it was also packed with Mediators and heavily monitored.

That didn’t stop Rose from making a couple of friends during her trips, though.

“Minhyuk!” She smiled as she squeezed through the people bustling around her, reaching for her bag. The man looked up from his stall and returned the smile when he saw her. Of course, not before checking where the nearest mediator was.

“Good morning,” he said, as she placed her bag down in front of her. “Do you have more salves for me?”

“I do,” she said, pulling out a couple of jars. “I know you’re having trouble getting the engineers to repair your tools, so this should help with the little scratches and burns.” She handed them over, and he smiled warmly. Some said that Minhyuk’s livestock were ‘tainted’ by other colour aura’s because he mingled too much in the square, so it made it hard for him to make deals. His defence was that there was no harm in being nice, and he kept to his time limit, anyway.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the jars from her. “Oh! I have something for you, too.” Rose watched curiously as he started searching through his cart. When he found what he was after, he kept a cloth wrapped around it as he handed the small bundle to her. “If anybody asks, you didn’t get it from me,” he whispered with a wink.

Rose peeked under the cloth, before her eyes went wide, “Strawberries!” she said, before quickly putting them in her bag. “Nobody has been able to grow them! How did-”

“Wrap it up, healer.”

Rose jumped. She should have been used to it by now, but she didn’t like when people suddenly appeared behind her. The mediator had placed his hand on her shoulder.

She didn’t turn to look at him. “Of course, the code is law, after all.”

Minhyuk was looking down, as he was supposed to. The learnt phrase was repeated so much in this square, he could recite it in his sleep. As the Mediator moved to step away, he quickly whispered, “My gift is special.”

Rose chuckled quietly, and they finished their trade. As she turned to leave the square, she could feel the eyes of many mediators watching her. It always happened. But the punnet of strawberries in her bag and the sweet smile she always got from Minhyuk was well worth it.

Before she made it to the gates of the white village, she heard cheering coming from one of the other gates. It was the warriors. She hadn’t noticed the time, today was the parade. The most important part of a warrior’s life was their induction – the day when they graduated from their training ready to take on the world. They would parade around the centre square, and then send the trainees straight into the warrior’s chamber. Nobody but the warriors knew what happened inside, but all she knew was that it was intense. When they emerged, they looked invincible.

Dangerous as it may sound, their life seemed much more exciting. Rose stopped to watch the warriors and trainees enter the square, as drums played, and banners of red were waved around. All the trainees were buzzing with energy. Aware of her time limit, Rose slowly began to walk again, when her eyes landed on one particular trainee.

He didn’t look as excited as the others. As a healer, Rose was very in tune with people, both their bodies and auras. This boy was radiating fear.  He looked up then, almost instinctively feeling her eyes on him.

Rose stopped.

Nobody could tell another person’s aura from so far away, usually they had to be right in front of you. And true to that, Rose couldn’t see his aura. But something about his eyes…she couldn’t quite pick it. It gave her a strange feeling.

“On your way, healer!”

Rose grunted as a hand shoved her in the back, that stern voice reminding her of her time limit. She barely had enough time to regain her footing before he shoved her again, and she stumbled out of the square, through the gates into the white village. She would have kept her footing had there not been a few steps outside the gates.

Her palms hit the ground first, and the contents of her bag all rolled out onto the concrete. Thankfully, the strawberries were still snugly wrapped and didn’t get squished in the process.

As she sat up, Rose glanced over her shoulder to see which one of the mediators had shoved her and recognised him immediately. This guy she did not like. He was kind of a big shot among the mediators, and he loved to remind everyone of that.

He had his arms folded, as he stared her down. “If I have to remove you from this square one more time you’ll be banned. You know the code.”

She didn’t flinch. “Yes. The code is law.”

The mediator turned and walked away, and Rose sighed as she looked at her stinging hands.

“You are too good at getting yourself into trouble,” a voice then said from beside her.

Rose almost squawked in surprise as she looked up to see someone had snuck up on her.

She let out a sigh at seeing the cheeky grin of her oldest friend. “By the code, Kyun, don’t scare me like that.”

He laughed as he grabbed her bag from the ground, gathering everything back into it. “But it’s fun sneaking up on you,” he said, before holding out his hand. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, letting him help her up. When he handed her bag back, she checked its contents. Everything seemed all right. “What are you doing here, anyway?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be following your father around?” she nodded her head in the direction the mediator had gone.

Changkyun’s aura was a strong one. It was common for children to be born with a different aura to their parents, but the stories that flowed through the villages of his family were that they were generations of mediators.

He shrugged, “I’m ‘supervising’ the white village today,” he said, giving her a cheeky smile.

One of the benefits of being son of a big shot, he could do what he wanted. Lucky bastard. Those with a grey aura were also the only ones who could be around other villagers for longer periods of time, thus why they were the ones who kept order. That, and their gift was knowing when somebody was lying.

“Well you can supervise me eating my strawberries,” she said as she started walking again.

That got his attention, “Strawberries?! Where did you get those?” he ran after her, and Rose grinned.

“A very gifted farmer,” she said simply.

He knew who she meant straight away. “That damn Minhyuk, he never shares with me. I ought to have words with him.”

Rose gave him a look. “Maybe if you had words with the engineers who won’t fix his tractor, you’d be getting some too.”

Changkyun made a face, before he seemed to remember something, “Oh!” and reached into his pocket. “I have something for you,” he said, glancing around them, before handing over a small envelope. “From you know who,” he whispered.

Rose instantly smiled, “Thank you,” she said, quickly slipping it away in her bag. “You’re a legend, you know that?”

He grinned, “Always am.”

…

“There you are, what took you so long?”

Rose closed the door to their home and turned to her brother. “Got a bit caught up in the square, it was busy today because of the parade.”

Hyungwon gave her a look, knowing half of that meant she spent probably too much time talking to Minhyuk. “Well you missed Jooheon.”

She placed her bag down on the table, “What? He was here?”

“Yep,” Hyungwon walked over to see what she’d gotten, “I applied to get an Engineer to fix our roof, remember? He just left.” 

Rose grumbled. Jooheon was another friend of hers, but since he was from the purple village, she barely ever saw him. He would have been accompanied by a mediator anyway so they wouldn’t have been able to talk much, but it still would have been nice to see him.

Jooheon had been one of her patients a couple of years back, after a freak accident during the construction of the Warrior’s hall. She’d been one of the only Healers at the sanctuary and had been rushed straight over to help. Ever since, Jooheon had sworn he was in debt to her.

Hyungwon then noticed something as he turned back to her, and his eyebrows creased unhappily.

“Relax,” she said straight away, “It’s nothing.”

“You call this nothing?” Hyungwon grabbed Rose’s wrist, showing the scrapes on her palms.

She rolled her eyes as he grabbed a bandage. “I got us strawberries.”

“You’re going to get yourself banned,” he said sternly. “And you can’t be seeing patients with bandaged hands.”

He had a point there, and she hated arguing with him, so she let him have it.

Hyungwon wasn’t her real brother, but she’d grown up with him. When a child was born a different aura to their parents, they were sent to the correct village and given a new family. Generally, nobody knew anything about their birth parents if this happened, because as far as the code went, their assigned family was their real family.

As it just so happened though, thanks to a certain Mediator, Rose had found out that she had a biological brother back in the blue village where she was born.

The Innovators were admired by a lot of people from all the villages. Their gift was of the mind, and all their technological advances had been because of the innovators. Whenever she received a letter from her brother in blue she was always in awe of whatever he had to say.

When Rose had arrived at the sanctuary, she’d had some spare time before her shift started, and decided to pull out the letter that Changkyun had given her. Despite the fact that she’d never met him, their letters to each other always had a warmth to their words, and he always asked how Hyungwon was going. It looked like he was currently working on another project, the details of which she didn’t understand at all, but would certainly praise when she had a chance to write back. She wondered what it was like to be able to think the way he did.

Hyungwon had been cleaning some of the supplies, and he noticed the letter when he walked over. “Kihyunnie?” he asked. Rose smiled and nodded. “Better put it away for now,” he suggested. “Kyun will be in a lot of trouble if anyone sees that.”

That was true. Following his advice, she pocketed the letter, and stood up to get ready for her shift.

When she set to work, she didn’t receive any comments on her bandaged palms, which was good. Thanks to her gift, the scrapes would be completely gone by midday, but until then it was a nuisance.

The sanctuary in which they worked was at the edge of the village, beside the centre square, which made it easy to access for the other villagers. There were mediators at the entrance to make sure only the injured entered, and that they went nowhere else.

The sanctuary was pretty quiet today, as the healers who weren’t rostered on would have been gathered by the gates trying to see how the warriors went. By mid-afternoon, Rose and Hyungwon were the only ones there.  

Until there was shouting from just outside.

“Help!” a voice was calling. “Someone, please!”

Hyungwon jumped up, just as a warrior ran into the sanctuary, carrying a man in his arms. He was breathing heavily, covered in sweat, and there was blood all over the front of his shirt. She recognised this warrior, he’d been one of the best trainees – Shownu his name was.

The man in his arms was shaking.

“What happened?” Rose asked as he hurriedly placed his companion in front of her.

“I-I don’t know,” he said, “The initiation-it-he-”

When Rose looked at the patient, her eyes widened. It was the boy from the square. She took in all the details. His hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, covering his eyes, and he was half conscious. His whole body was shaking, and judging from his red stained lips and chin, he’d been coughing up blood. He looked incredibly pale.

She’d never seen something like this before. In a moment of uncertainty, she looked up at Hyungwon. He was kneeling on the other side of the patient, looking at her steadily. “You’re the better one out of the two of us,” he said.

_Brilliant._ “Alright, get me some fluids and a lot of Hazel.” Hyungwon nodded and jumped up, as Rose tried to figure out what was causing such a reaction in this boy. “What’s his name?” she asked Shownu.

“Wonho,” he answered.

Rose leant over her newest patient, brushing the hair out of his half-lidded eyes. “Wonho,” she said steadily. “Can you hear me?”

He quickly nodded, before tensing up suddenly. Rose instantly knew why and helped him roll onto his side so he could cough more blood onto the floor. This was bad.

“Make it stop,” he rasped, shaking hands pulled into fists.

“Here,” Rose placed her hand on his forehead, “This will soothe you.” All healers could use this trick. It helped with panicky and fidgety patients. “Hyungwon will reduce the pain with Hazel, it’s a very fast and effective reliever. Where is your mark?”

Everyone had a marking on one of their wrists that showed the symbol of their aura. Pain relief was always most effective when applied to one’s mark.

He quickly shook his head, bringing his hands to his chest, as if trying to hide his mark. Hyungwon had returned with what she’d asked for, and they shared a confused look. “Wonho, we need your mark. Your body is rejecting something. Let us help you.”

Wonho squeezed his eyes shut then. “You can’t.”

He must have been delirious from all the blood loss. “It’s our gift, it’s what we do, now give me your mark,” Rose reached out and grabbed his wrist, and Wonho opened his eyes.

What she hadn’t realised during their interaction so far, was that she hadn’t been able to see his aura, despite how close they were. It wasn’t until she’d locked eyes with him that it hit her.

It felt like a slap in the face, the way it appeared out of nowhere. She’d been so shocked by it that she’d paused in her movements, still holding onto his wrist.

What was most shocking though, was that it wasn’t red.

She wrenched her hand back, staring at him wide-eyed. “You….you’re not-”

Before she could finish her sentence, a loud bang was heard from outside. Someone had just kicked open a door.

Shownu had jumped up in a panic, and instantly ran for the door, as a booming voice sounded from the entranceway, rattling everyone in the room.

“Where is he?!”  


	2. Chapter 2

Rose wasn’t sure what had compelled her to do what she did next.

She didn’t have the fast thinking of the Innovators, or the practicality of the Engineers, and certainly not the agility of the Warriors. But she also didn’t have the candour of the Mediators.

Which was why, when she saw that Wonho’s aura was not red like the warriors he was with, and heard the loud booming voice outside looking for him, that she decided to hide him.

They only had a few seconds. All it took was a pleading look to Hyungwon for him to understand, and he jumped up to follow Shownu to try and slow down the intruder. Rose dragged Wonho over to the storage room, apologising immensely as she closed the door on a very unwell patient. She barely had enough time to run over to the window and fling it open when the commander himself – leader of all the warriors – barged straight in.

“Where is the boy?” he demanded.

Rose glanced behind her, hopelessly, to the window. “Gone,” she said. “He bolted.”

The commander marched over, as two other warriors entered the room, shoving Shownu and Hyungwon aside. After looking out the window, the commander turned on her. “He’s gone, you say?”

“Yes,” she said confidently. “I tried to see to him-”

The commander then grabbed the collar of her shirt, shoving her into the wall. The breath left her lungs in a surprised gasp.

“I don’t care what you _tried_ to do. You failed your job. One more slip-up like that and you could find yourself amongst the code-breakers, _healer.”_

It was then that another person entered the sanctuary, and Rose almost groaned at seeing the slate grey outfit.

“What is going on in here? This is a sanctuary for the injured, not-”

The commander let her go and turned on the mediator who had entered. “You, truth boy. Use your gift on her.”

It was Changkyun. Thank the heavens, it was him. Any other mediator and her whole plan could have been over as soon as it started.

The commander stepped out of the way, and Changkyun’s eyes landed on her. He probably had a million questions, but he only needed to ask one. “What happened?”

A mediator’s eyes could pick out a lie the minute you opened your mouth, but Rose wasn’t afraid, so she explained her fake story. How the warrior had been brought in by Shownu, and as soon as their attention had been diverted for a slight moment, he’d run for the window and vaulted straight out.

Changkyun had known something strange was going on the minute he’d walked into the room, and expected once he got her story, it would all be clear. But now as he listened, his mind screaming _lie,_ he wondered just how serious this situation was.

He nodded nonchalantly as she finished explaining. “She’s telling the truth,” he said, turning back to the commander. “Now if I were you, I would vacate these premises before my father gets word that you entered another village without proper consent.”

That made the commander move. He didn’t even glance back at Rose as he stormed out, and the other warriors dragged Shownu with them.

As soon as they were gone, Changkyun turned back to her, a look of disbelief on his face. _I can’t believe I just had to lie for you,_ it said.

“What did you do?”

…

Life was no longer boring for Rose. It was stressful. Somehow, her and Hyungwon had managed to carry Wonho back to their house without being seen – with Changkyun’s help of course. Then there was the issue of actually trying to heal him. Usually, with some Hazel and use of their gift, any patient would be fine within the day. This condition however, didn’t seem to get any better.

Rose had to pretend to be sick in order to look after Wonho, so Hyungwon took all of her shifts at the sanctuary. She’d managed to reduce the pain and stop him from coughing up blood, but he was constantly in and out of consciousness. Even when he was somewhat awake, he wasn’t coherent enough to explain anything. So, Rose stayed by his side, keeping the pain to a minimum with the Hazel while he tossed and turned in her bed, sweating and shaking and cursing.

Hyungwon checked in between shifts, reminding her to eat and rest, which she was doing thank you very much. Every day he would bring back supplies for her, under the premise it would help his unwell sister, rather than the runaway they were looking after.

What worked in her favour, was the fact that while they were healers and could help anyone get back on their feet within a day, if they themselves got sick, it was bad. Rose remembered a time when Hyungwon had been unfortunate enough to suffer a healer’s sickness, she hadn’t been allowed anywhere near him for weeks.

It was this well-known fact that kept the other healers from asking more about her absence, and kept people away from their house. It was the perfect cover.

It was a miracle when Wonho finally settled. He was still shaking every now and then, but he appeared to be sleeping. Rose was hoping that meant her gift had actually done something.

She’d stood up to get some more hazel and rinse out the cloth that had been on his head, when she heard a very quiet knock from the front door. She froze. They weren’t expecting anybody, and Hyungwon wasn’t due back from the sanctuary for some time. Her heart started to pound at the thought of being caught breaking the code.

Then, a voice called out. “Hey,” he said. “It’s me.”

Oh, it was just Changkyun. Letting out the breath she had been holding, Rose walked over and opened the door, cautiously letting him inside.

“Is everything alright?” she whispered, not wanting to disturb the man sleeping in the corner.

He nodded, “Yeah, nobody suspects anything yet. Though they doubt that he would have made it out of the village in his condition. Everyone’s on alert.” That didn’t help much with Rose’s worry. She looked back over at Wonho. Seeing him finally resting after all these days concreted the fact that she didn’t regret her decision at all.

“How is he?” Changkyun asked.

“Alive,” she said, turning and plopping down on a chair. “From what I can see of his aura the worst isn’t over yet, but he’s going to be okay. Eventually.”

They didn’t have a very long time to chat, so Changkyun promised he would check back in later, and slipped out of the house, back into the village where he had been patrolling. Just after Rose closed the door, she was surprised by a voice.

“You lied to them.” It was quiet, and breathy, but she heard it. Rose turned around, to see his eyes were open, and he’d turned his head to look at her. “Why?”

She walked back over to him, sitting down on the chair she’d placed by the bed. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “All I know is I’m a healer and I’m doing my job.”

His gaze was sceptical. “No average healer would have done that,” he pointed out.

“Well,” Rose reached out to place the cloth back on his forehead, “I guess I’m not your average healer, then.”

The smallest smile appeared on his face. He looked exhausted, but it was good to see. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Rose.”

Those eyes were still just as entrancing as when she’d first seen him. It was very strange, the feeling she got when looking at him.

“Thank you, Rose.”

She smiled. “You can thank me by explaining what goes on in that initiation. Whatever it is, your body couldn’t handle it.”

Rose had already broken the code numerous times now, what was one more violation like learning something only warriors were allowed to know?

Wonho had no problem in helping her break that code, as he explained that warriors weren’t born with their gift like everyone else. It laid dormant in those with red aura’s, until the day they finished their training and they went into the warrior’s chamber. It was there, that their gift would be ‘activated’ as such. It was in this chamber, that Wonho had collapsed and started spitting blood everywhere.

Of course, it made so much sense now. His aura wasn’t red. His body was rejecting the initiation because it wasn’t made for him. She’d never imagined that something like this would ever happen. The mediators spent all their time trying to uphold the code and keep the different villagers as separated as possible. But somehow, this man had managed it.

Her mother’s words then floated through her head. _‘The code exists for a reason, Rose. It’s not our job to question it.’_

After asking how he was even in the warrior’s village, with a warrior’s mark, with no warrior aura, Wonho managed to surprise her even more with the answer.

When Rose had been born in the Innovator’s village, showing a white aura, she was instantly sent to the white village. But when Wonho had been born in the Warrior’s village, showing an aura that wasn’t red, his parents refused to give him up. Instead, they pretended that they sent him away, and received a child from another village in his stead, while supressing his aura.

It explained why it took so long for Rose to sense his aura back at the sanctuary. It wasn’t until she’d touched his mark – which she now knew was a fake warrior’s mark – that she saw his real aura. She assumed that had he been well she wouldn’t have seen it though, as whatever his parents had used to supress his aura was extremely strong. No doubt they’d had help from an Innovator for that.

When he was done explaining, she leant back in her chair, folding her arms. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

…

When Wonho asked what had happened to Shownu, Rose wasn’t really sure what to say. All she’d seen was that the warriors had dragged him out of the sanctuary behind the commander, and so she told him as much. Those tired eyes closed upon hearing that, as guilt showed on his face. No doubt Shownu was now suffering because of Wonho’s incident. He had no idea that Wonho wasn’t a true Warrior, all he’d done was tried to help a friend.

Wanting to make him feel better, Rose offered up a piece of information that wasn’t common at all. “The man who was just here,” she said. “He’s my friend – a mediator. I can find out what happened to him.”

Wonho seemed to relax a little upon hearing that. He gave her a grateful look. 

Rose smiled for a moment, before sighing, “You should try to sleep, the Hazel is going to wear off, soon.” 

Still looking quite pale, Wonho’s eyebrows creased in worry, “I can’t have more?”

She shook her head sadly, “I gave you a lot, any more and it’ll be poison.” She moved to stand up, “Hyungwon will be back in a minute-”

A hand shot out, grabbing her by the wrist gently. “Wait.” Rose’s mark stung for a second, but it made her want to sit back down. She looked back at Wonho, who’s tired eyes were pleading with her.

“Stay with me,” he said. “Please.”

She didn’t even want to argue. She knew the code, she knew the reasons why the mediators upheld the code, all the talk about auras and time limits. But right now, looking at those eyes, none of that mattered to her. So, she sat back down, knowing this felt more right than leaving. “Okay.”

When Hyungwon returned, closing the door on a dark and quiet village, he turned to see Rose sitting by the bed, leaning on her palms as she watched Wonho sleep. He’d had similar thoughts about the code and what they were doing-especially what Rose was doing-but while there was a part of him that remembered the words of their mother, for some reason it didn’t bother him. Seeing his sister spending so much time with a non-white aura person should have set off so many alarms in his head, but watching them, he could see something else. All healers were very in tune with other people and their aura’s, and his gut was telling him not to worry, so he didn’t.

What he was worrying about was how they were going to pull this off without being caught.

He placed the supplies on the table beside the bed, “Minhyuk asked about you again today,” he said quietly.

Rose looked up at him, “What did you say?” she asked.

“What I must,” he responded with a shrug, “That you’re unwell and can’t leave the house. It’s not like I can explain what’s really going on with so many mediators around.”

That was true. While they couldn’t tell anyone what they were doing, there were a small group of people in the city that Rose would trust. If only she could see them as often as she wanted to.

…

Wonho woke with a start. Straight away he could feel the sweat on his forehead, and he started to panic. “What the hell?”

Rose was still sitting beside him, and she quickly leant forward into his line of vision. “Hey, you’re okay,” she reassured. “The Hazel has worn off, so you might experience some pain.”

“ _Some?”_ His hands balled into fists as the pain came like a wave. “What’s happening?”

It wasn’t pleasant to watch him clench his eyes shut and groan from the pain, but there wasn’t much that Rose could do now. “Your aura is rejecting what the warrior chamber tried to do. My gift isn’t going to do anything, so you’ll have to wait it out. Once it’s all out of your system, you should be okay.”

“What about that calming thing you guys can do?”

She hated to see him suffer like this. “I’m not sure if it’ll make a difference…” she said honestly, but she reached out anyway, placing her hand on his wrist, where the fake warrior mark was.

It took a second, but his expression changed. It must have done something, because in the next moment, he grabbed her hand.

She felt her own mark sting again. Maybe it was a sign that they were too close, but just like before, she didn’t want to leave.

Noticing that he’d started to sweat again, she reached out with her other hand to feel his forehead. Great, now he had a fever.

There were a lot of things that were uncertain at the moment. How long this would last, if his aura would be permanently affected, what they were going to do once he had recovered, if they would get through this without being caught.

There were so many unspoken questions, but as Rose sat by the bed, grasping Wonho’s hand and trying to cool him down with the cloth, there was one thing that was certain: They had a long night ahead of them.


	3. Chapter 3

When Wonho woke up, his head was pounding.

It must have been around mid-afternoon, as he could feel the warm sunlight streaming in through the window. Despite the fact that he was still exhausted even after sleeping for so long, he decided to open his eyes.

The room was dead quiet. He had to blink a few times for his vision to focus on something, and the first thing he noticed was a mess of hair on the bed beside him. He turned his head.

Rose was fast asleep, still sitting in the chair she had been before, her head rested on her arm on the edge of the bed. Her other arm was outstretched, hand still grasping his. She must have been exhausted.

Wonho had been out of it for quite some time, he didn’t even know how long it had been since the Hazel had worn off. He couldn’t remember a whole lot, either, aside from a bunch of fever induced nightmares. It felt like a century of hell.

But he did know that she’d been there the whole time, and whenever he’d squeezed her hand, she squeezed back.

Why on earth this complete stranger had decided to risk everything to save him, he didn’t know, but he was so, so grateful. He’d have to think of something amazing in order to make up for such a deed. If he managed to get back on his feet without someone finding him, that is.

He looked back at the sleeping woman beside him. Her breaths were steady and even, her shoulders rising and falling gently with them. He was still in pain, but it wasn’t as bad as before, and somehow, he felt so…content. Like a glorious calm had descended over him after the hell he’d just endured.

He thought it could have had something to do with Rose’s gift, but as she was asleep, there was no way she could have been using it. Either way, he was finally somewhat relaxed, and that was a miracle for now.

Without thinking, he found himself squeezing her hand again. A moment later, she shifted, and he panicked.

Lifting her head, Rose blinked her eyes in confusion, as if having not realised she’d fallen asleep.

 “I’m sorry,” he said quickly, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Her eyes focused on him, and she smiled in relief at seeing him awake and calm. “How are you feeling?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

He found himself smiling as well. “Better. The best I’ve felt since entering that chamber, actually.”

That was great to hear. With her free arm, Rose reached out to place the back of her hand on his cheek, and then forehead. “Your fever is gone, that’s good.”

His eyes were hopeful as she sat back, “It can only get better from here, right?”

Her smile was like a jewel under the sunlight from the window, “I hope so.”

He glanced back down at their hands, still clasped together. The inside of her wrist was visible from where her arm was resting on the bed, and Wonho’s eyes went wide when he noticed something.

 “Your mark!”

Rose blinked at him, before looking down at her wrist. When she saw it, she gasped, pulling her hand back to stare at it. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She glanced back down at his hand, and then saw something else.

Her mouth was agape. “Yours…”

When he looked down at his own wrist, it was his turn to gape. Before, he’d had the fake warrior’s mark, which had constantly stung and caused him trouble. Now, it was gone.

In its place, was the mark that belonged to his aura. The mark of an Engineer.

But something was different about it.

All aura marks were simply an outline in their colour. Nobody’s mark ever strayed from that. But right now, Wonho was looking at his wrist and his mark had splashes of white inside it.

When Rose was looking at hers, she saw purple.

They looked at each other in disbelief.  There was silence for a few moments.

One thing came to Wonho’s mind then. It was something that had been drilled into them since birth.

 “The code,” he murmured.

Rose looked back down at her wrist. The purple was slowly disappearing from her mark. When she looked back at him, she realised she’d already made her decision when she brought him back here.

 “I’ve done a lot of code breaking since meeting you,” she said casually. She didn’t know what was happening, or why it was happening, but whatever it was, it was already in motion. And she liked it. So why stop now?

She slowly reached out again, and when he didn’t pull away, she grabbed his hand. She instantly felt warmer. When she looked back at those eyes, he was smiling.

…

 “What is that?” Wonho asked the minute Rose sat down.

She couldn’t help but laugh, “Don’t look so scared, it’s just soup,” she said, placing the steaming bowl on the table beside her. “If you’re going to regain your strength you’ll need some nutrients.”

He still felt tired all the time, which was frustrating. He spent half the day sleeping and could only sit up for a short amount of time before wanting to sleep some more. Rose had explained that part of that would have been caused by the Hazel, but the ordeal his aura had been through also would have completely drained him. He wasn’t used to being doted over like this, but he didn’t doubt her knowledge and tried to go along with her advice on how to get better.

Except for right now.

He scrunched up his nose, “It smells funny.”

She picked up the bowl, “I promise it won’t kill you.”

 “Are you sure though?” he responded, raising his eyebrows as if he didn’t believe her.

She found herself laughing as she shoved the bowl towards him, “Will you eat, please?”

He kept pushing his luck, “What do I get for it?” he asked with a grin.

 “A healthy recovery,” she retorted.

 “What else have you got?”

“Eat.”

He had that stupid grin on his face as he finally relented and sat up. Once Rose handed him the bowl, she stood up to clean up the kitchen area.

A few minutes later, they heard someone at the door.

One knock.

Three knocks.

Two knocks.

It was Changkyun. With all that was going on, they decided on a secret knock of sorts to make things easier and for them to know who it was. Rose quickly let him inside.

“Is he behaving?” the Mediator asked jokingly, nodding his head towards the man who was finally eating the soup.

“I’m her top patient,” Wonho responded between slurps.

“You’re my only patient,” she reminded him. She then turned back to Changkyun, “We’re doing good. How’s things on your end?”

At first, he wasn’t sure what to say. There were some…weird things going on in the Mediator’s village. He didn’t want to say anything until he was absolutely sure what he had overheard though, so kept it to himself for now.

He shrugged, “As usual.” He then reached for his pocket, “I’ve got another letter for you.”

Rose’s eyes lit up as he handed her another envelope. “Thank you!”

Changkyun leant against the table, “He’s been writing to you a lot more recently,” he noted. “It’s like he has no projects to work on.”

“Actually, more like the opposite,” She responded, opening the letter. “He’s been telling me about all these new projects he’s working on. It’s like his workload has doubled.”

Changkyun smiled, “You know, despite the fact that you’ve never actually met – he seems very fond of you.”

“Well,” Rose was looking at the letter as she sat back down on the chair beside the bed. “If I had a sibling that was taken away from me when I was young, I would probably be the same,” she said simply. Kihyun had been four years old when she was born – just old enough to remember the excitement of a little sister, only for her to be taken away as soon as she arrived.

Changkyun found himself nodding, “True.”

After her mediator friend had left, Rose sat reading Kihyun’s letter as Wonho finished eating.

“Did I hear that right?” Wonho said as he placed the bowl back on the table beside him.

 “Mhmm,” she said, eyes still on the letter. “I was born in the blue village, and thanks to Kyun, I found out I had a brother. He’s been delivering letters for us for a couple of years now.”

 “So, you’ve always been a code breaker, then,” he teased.

She gave him a pointed look, “Well look, if you had a long-lost sibling, you would want to get in contact with them, too.”

He looked down. After a moment, he replied. “I do, actually.”

Rose looked up, “Hm?”

 “I have a younger brother,” he said, eyes looking distant. “But, he was born a mediator. And unlike me, my parents couldn’t hang onto him.”

Rose felt bad when she saw the look on his face, having brought the topic up, as if she was the only person who could have been separated from her real family. 

She got a brilliant idea, then. “Changkyun could find out-”

Wonho was shaking his head. “I don’t even know his name. It would be impossible. Besides, I’m a wanted man now, remember?”

Yes, she remembered. She remembered the shock of hearing the commander stomping towards the sanctuary, demanding to know where he was. She remembered her heart pounding as she faced the tall ugly man, knowing that Wonho was suffering just inside the storage room. She remembered the hushed whispers shared between her and Hyungwon as they carried him to their house in the darkness, relying on Changkyun’s signals. She remembered catching her breath every time somebody passed too close to their house, not being able to let it out until the footsteps receded.

She remembered. But the longer he was here, the more she didn’t want him to leave. It was a strange, yet welcome contradiction.

She wasn’t sure what to say. “Wonho…”

He gave her a cheeky smile then, “That’s not my real name, either.”

Rose blinked at him. “What?”

 “Think about it,” he said. “If you’re trying to hide a kid, and pretend he’s someone else, you wouldn’t use the same name.”

That was true. “So, what is your real name then?”

She half thought that he wouldn’t tell her just to be annoying, but he didn’t even hesitate. “Hoseok,” he said.

 “Does anyone know you by that name?” she asked.

He shook his head, “Only my parents did.”

 “Geez,” Rose leant back in her chair, regarding him thoughtfully, “Any other secrets?”

He made a show of thinking for a moment, “Hmm, don’t think so,” he said, before grinning as she rolled her eyes.

…

Rose was smiling in anticipation as she sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you ready?”

Sitting beside her, his hand planted firmly on her shoulder, Wonho nodded. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

After being bed ridden for a ridiculous amount of time, he was finally going to get on his feet again. Or try, at least. Rose had her arm securely wrapped around his back, and when he was ready, he tried to stand. He had to put a lot of his weight onto her shoulder, which she handled fine, but in a moment, he was up.

They stood there, and he looked down at his feet, smiling. “Good to see they still work,” he joked.

Rose chuckled, and he then decided to try and walk forwards. This didn’t go quite as well. He took a few steps, but his legs were ready to give out, and he stumbled.

Thinking quickly, Rose pushed him towards the chair, and he fell into it. There was a thump as he landed, and because he’d dragged her with him, Rose had to put her hands on his shoulders to stop herself from falling into his lap.

They looked at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

 “One step at a time?” Rose suggested.

Wonho was still chuckling, “That might be a good idea.”

…

It took some time, but with patience and persistence, he got better. Every day he felt more confident, and would try to push his limits, until he was able to be on his feet almost constantly.

One particular day, he’d decided to help Rose wash the dishes. They were standing side by side in the kitchen, their team work giving them great efficiency. Having Wonho around all the time felt like a blessing at this point. Not only did he help her with the boring mundane tasks, but they could talk for hours without getting bored of each other or sick of each other. Not to mention having him around gave her this warm content feeling that she never wanted to lose.

She glanced down at her wrist for a second, seeing the splashes of purple inside her mark. At this point, she didn’t really care if the code were protecting them from some imminent danger. Even if some foretold tragedy were to strike the next day because of this, there was this crazy voice in her head that was saying it would be worth it anyway. Maybe being around his aura was making her nuts. Oh well.

 “You better be careful, or I’ll expect your help with everything,” she teased.

He was smiling as he scrubbed the bowls they’d eaten lunch out of, “And that would be a bad thing because?”

She just chuckled in response. They worked in comfortable silence for a bit, until he spoke again.

 “I don’t know if I would have said this to you while in feverish delirium,” Wonho mused, “But when Shownu brought me to you, back in the sanctuary…I thought you were an angel.”

Rose almost dropped the dish she’d been drying. “What?” She turned to give him a look of disbelief.

 “I’m serious!” he said. “I felt like I was dying, and then suddenly there was this beautiful person above me dressed in white,” he explained. “What was I supposed to think?”

Rose looked at him for a moment, and when she realised he was actually serious, she just started laughing. All she could manage to say was, “You’re such a dork.”

BANG BANG BANG.

A knock on the door. Well, it was less a knock of someone’s knuckles and more like a fist landing purposely on the wood. Someone on a mission.

Rose’s heart jumped into her throat as they both froze. Whoever was outside, their auras were strong, and Rose could sense them. Mediators.

 “Wardrobe,” she whispered urgently. Wonho just stared at her, still frozen. “The wardrobe, _now.”_

He had the same look of fear in his eyes that were mirrored in hers, but after a moment, he did as he was told and dashed into the next room. Rose urged herself to calm down as she walked over to the door, taking a deep breath. They weren’t going to take Wonho away from her, not if she could help it.

When she opened the door, she was met with two Mediators, just as she had guessed. They both had measured looks on their faces.

 “Afternoon,” one of them said. “My partner and I are undergoing some routine checks on the villager’s quarters, I hope you don’t mind.” In other words, move out of the way because you don’t have a choice. 

Rose just nodded and stepped aside. Her heart was pounding. She tried to remember everything Changkyun had taught her about Mediators as they walked past her into the house.

 “You’re looking for something,” she said as she turned around, watching them step into the kitchen where Wonho had been standing only a moment ago. “If you would be so kind as to inform me what it is, I may be able to assist.”

One of them turned around, a calculating look on his face. It looked like he considering whether to take the bait or not. He decided to indulge her.

 “There is word that a runaway trainee from the Warrior’s camp is somewhere in this village,” he said. “For the safety of all citizens, we’d like to find him as soon as possible.”

The Mediator glanced around the room, before those deadly eyes landed on her. His gaze was sharp and unwavering, as if waiting for her to cave and admit to any and all wrongdoings. “Is there any chance that you have seen him?”

Her mouth had gone dry. She was all too aware of the man hiding in her closet, who she had spent so long looking after. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing everything she’d worked for now. But her hands were sweating, and her mind was panicking as the feeling of doom swirled around in her gut, making her feel nauseas.

After all, nobody could lie to a Mediator.


	4. Chapter 4

Rose’s heart was pounding. There were two mediators in her house, and they’d just asked her a question. As soon as she said a single false word, they would be all over her.

Somewhere amongst the sheer amount of panic in her mind, she remembered something.

Changkyun had once told her about instances where he’d essentially lied to his father about things.

_“That’s impossible,” she had told him, “he’s a mediator.”_

_“But so am I,” he’d responded. “That’s how I knew how to handle it. Technically, I didn’t lie. All you need to do is change the sentence so that it sounds like you’re answering their question, but the words themselves are the truth.”_

At the time, that had made no sense to her. But now, it opened a window of possibility.

Rose lifted her chin, “I’ve not seen a warrior in quite some time,” she said.

The mediators measured her words, their eyes like sharp knives on her, but they saw it was truth. After a moment, they nodded.

 “Very well,” one of them said to her and they turned to leave, “Thank you for your time.”

Once the front door was shut again, Rose turned to the wardrobe. Her pulse still hadn’t settled. When Wonho finally appeared again, she crossed the room in a few strides and hugged him.

He seemed surprised for a moment, before he returned the hug. She couldn’t see it, but he was staring blankly at the floor. His mind was running a mile a minute and he didn’t know what to do.

His pulse hadn’t slowed down, either.

……

Changkyun loved being a mediator. It made it so much easier to get into places he wasn’t supposed to be.

Nowadays, that felt like all the time.

Today, he was in the Innovator’s village. Was he supposed to be there? No. Was he going to choose to be there instead of his designated patrol? Yes.

Was his father going to care? No.

He never cared.

Praising the useless parent that he was, Changkyun slipped into a room he’d visited many times. There were various workstations throughout the room, and in the middle of the day this place would be filled with Innovators, all working on their projects, and bouncing ideas off each other.

It was dead quiet right now, meaning the person he was looking for was bound to be here.

True to his suspicions, over in the corner, hunched over a set of blueprints, was the man he was after.

 “Kihyun!” He greeted, “Funny finding you here.”

The man jumped, hands covering the blueprints, before he relaxed upon seeing who it was. “Kyun, you scared the crap out of me,” he said.

The mediator chuckled, “I’m good at that.” He pulled up a chair and sat down next to him, throwing an envelope on the table. “Your sister is causing mischief as usual.”

“Excuse me, she’s a model citizen,” Kihyun responded, picking up the letter with a grin. He loved getting her letters, it was so fascinating hearing about things from her perspective.

The white village was on the exact opposite side of the city, and Kihyun had never had any need to visit the Sanctuary. The only glimpse he’d gotten of the village itself was the photo Kyun had given to him when he’d first found out they were siblings. Rose probably looked a lot older now than in the photo, but it stayed safely tucked away under Kihyun’s mattress in case any mediators should decide to have a peek through his quarters.

“Oh, so she hasn’t told you?” Changkyun asked, raising his eyebrows.

Kihyun looked up from the letter with an odd expression, “Told me what?”

Having been respecting their privacy, Changkyun didn’t know what they’d been writing to each other, which was why he’d asked Rose about Kihyun’s project work previously. Being in the middle of what was turning out to be one giant mess though, meant he had to watch what he said around different people, should he give away information that he shouldn’t have. 

He covered it up easily, “That you’re an idiot if you think this isn’t code-breaking,” he said with a grin.

Kihyun rolled his eyes, “Oh shut up.”

Changkyun’s eyes moved to the blue prints under Kihyun’s elbow. “Have you told her about…?”

He quickly shook his head, folding them up. “Best not get more people involved,” he said, standing up. “Besides, it’s not finished yet.”

Changkyun stood as well, pushing the chair back to where he’d found it. “Jooheon seems to think it is.”

Kihyun scoffed, “He’s just excited he got to do something interesting for once. Trust me, you’ll know when it’s finished.”

…

“Ah, Minhyuk, my good man!” Jooheon grinned as the walked up to the familiar stall.

“You’re late,” was the response he got, the farmer busy piling fruit into a basket. “My time is just about up.” He then glanced towards the nearest mediator. “And keep your voice down.”

“Sorry,” Jooheon responded, leaning against the stall as he watched Minhyuk pack up. “I got caught up with a uh, project.”

That made Minhyuk pause. He glanced up at Jooheon, who looked back at him evenly. “A project, huh?” Minhyuk asked.

“Yep,” Jooheon said, “And since I can’t get the clearance to fix your equipment, the least I can do is buy something from you.”

Understanding what Jooheon was trying to tell him, Minhyuk gave him his full attention. “Well sure, I haven’t got a lot left but I have enough time for one more sale...”

The mediator nearby was oblivious to what was actually going on, as they organised their exchange and Jooheon slipped Minhyuk a tiny slip of paper while paying for his goods. The farmer smoothly tucked it away in his pocket as Jooheon walked away with his produce.

It stayed untouched as Minhyuk packed up his stall and pushed his cart back into the farmer’s village. He didn’t even glance at his pocket when he reached his plot at the end of the road, neither did he reach for it once he’d put his cart away in the shed and pat the horses on his way past the paddock. There were no mediators here at the moment, but he could never be too careful.

It wasn’t until he was inside his little shack, that he finally reached for his pocket, and pulled the note out.

He read over the few words scrawled on the tiny slip of paper, and let out a disgruntled sigh. “Dammit Jooheon.”

….

Shownu watched the same man do the same steps in front of him that he’d done every day. The Warrior would stand from his seat, walk across the front of his cell, look at his watch, and then walk back and sit down again. Easy to say there wasn’t much in the form of entertainment when you were a level or so below ground.

And he still didn’t understand how he’d gotten himself here.

He’d pieced together most of what was going on thanks to overheard conversations, but he was as clueless as the rest of the Warriors as to what Wonho actually was.

They’d been best friends for years, how hadn’t he noticed that something was off? Sure, during training Wonho had taken a little longer to pick things up, but since they didn’t have their gifts nothing was a giveaway.

Not that these Warriors had any answers, either. The only thing anyone knew around here was that Wonho’s aura had been rejected in the chamber, and so he mustn’t have been a Warrior. That’s when the questions had started flying.

Being the one who’d taken Wonho to the sanctuary – leading to him escaping – Shownu had been their top lead, and culprit.

Unfortunately for them though, when they’d gotten the Mediators in to question Shownu, it was useless. He was clueless. He hadn’t even been around when Wonho escaped either, as he’d run straight for the door the second he heard the Commander’s voice. As far as Shownu knew, Wonho had jumped out that window.

What he’d managed to conceal from the mediators though, was that he knew that was impossible. Even if he hadn’t seen what happened, having witnessed the condition Wonho was in, he knew that the man couldn’t have managed to escape on his own.

Then there was the girl. The one who’d been in the sanctuary when he carried Wonho in – he’d seen her before.

Everyone in this village knew about the accident that had happened while the Warrior’s hall was being built. A couple of the supports had been unstable, causing half the scaffolding to collapse on top of a few of the Engineers.

Word had gone to the Sanctuary right away, but only one healer had been available at the time.

Shownu remembered the whole thing. He’d been training on the grass right beside the construction area, and had paused the minute he’d heard a crash. Instantly, other Engineers had run over to lift the debris off of their peers – like lifting something that heavy wasn’t a feat of it’s own – but the damage had already been done.

When she arrived, the whole site had been filled with panic, but she’d handled it amazingly. By the time more healers had arrived, all the hard work had been done. She’d saved more than one life that day.

Which was why Shownu didn’t feel the need to be concerned for Wonho’s health. Everything he knew pointed to one thing – which was that he was in good hands.

As for every other question he had – well, he was as frustrated as the other warriors. How had Wonho been in this camp his whole life with a Warrior’s mark if he wasn’t a Warrior? And most importantly: What was he if he wasn’t a Warrior?

It got Shownu thinking – he had so much time to think – and he realised he’d never actually seen or felt Wonho’s aura, despite the fact that they’d trained together in close proximity. Whatever this was – it was genius.

His head lifted at the sound of other Warriors talking just around the corner.

 “It’s such a shame, too…” one of them was saying. “He was our best trainee.”

…

It was late when Changkyun finally made his way back to the Healer’s village. Walking past the sanctuary, he’d nodded to the Mediators at their posts, and spotted Hyungwon helping a warrior limp inside. So, he wasn’t home.

He reached the residence he always visited and slipped inside after knocking appropriately.

 “I’ve got news,” he said right away, getting straight to the point.

Wonho had been sitting at the table, blankly staring at the pages of a book, while Rose was in the kitchen, and they both gave him their full attention.

 “There was a meeting this afternoon, in the Mediator’s village,” he explained. “I wasn’t high ranked enough to be involved, but I heard the outcome from my father.” He turned to Wonho. “It was about Shownu.”

His eyebrows raised in surprise. He hadn’t heard any news about Shownu at all. Changkyun had told them ages ago that he’d look into it, but it must have been kept so far under the radar that he couldn’t get any information.

Changkyun didn’t look very happy, in fact he didn’t like being the messenger when all he had to give was bad news. “They finally decided what to do with him. Despite the fact he passed all the Mediator’s questioning as a clueless innocent, they’ve decided to consider him a code-breaker.”

Rose almost dropped the cup she had been holding. “What?”

Wonho was silent. He just stared.

Changkyun sighed, “It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t intentionally involved in anything against the code, he still assisted in a code-breaker escaping by bringing him to the sanctuary. They’ve realised the threat this whole situation poses and want to cut out every possibility of more code-breakers arising.”

 “So, what happens to him now?” Rose asked.

Kyun turned to give her a look, “You know what happens now.” 

Wonho had been thinking about this all day. Ever since the mediators left, his mind had been a mess.

He’d thought through the situation over, and over, and over again. He’d replayed the moments when the mediators had been in the house so many times. All of the possible outcomes, all of the possible solutions, he’d thought over them all.

During his recovery, there was one thing he hadn’t been sure of – what he was going to do once he was better. What was there to do when you were wanted by two of the villages in the city – one of which patrolled the other five?

Now having heard Shownu’s fate, after a day of contemplating, he finally came to a decision.

He needed to leave.

 “What?” Rose had stared at him wide eyed the minute he’d said so. Changkyun had only just walked out the door, she’d barely even processed what was going to happen to Shownu, and now Wonho had opened his mouth and shocked her even more.

 “I can’t stay here,” he explained. “This is only going to get worse. To the Mediators I am the biggest threat they’ve ever had against the code. The next time they come knocking, that could be it.”

 “But-”

 “Rose,” he placed his hands on her shoulders, showing her that beautiful smile. “You have done so much for me. I can’t even describe how grateful I am. But the longer I am here, the more I’m putting you in danger. If anyone finds out that you’re associated with me, your life would be over.”

She didn’t waver, “I made that decision.”

 “And this is mine,” he said. “One person is already suffering because of me, I can’t let that happen to you, too.” He lifted a hand to her cheek, “Hyungwon would never forgive me.”

That reminded her of just how many people were involved in this. Not just her, but if shit hit the fan then Hyungwon would also be a target, and probably Changkyun as well.

Despite the logic that he was giving her, she still wanted to argue. “But you’re not fully recovered, yet.”

He smiled, then. A small but beautiful smile that only seemed to upset her even more. “Did you forget?” he asked. “I’m an Engineer. My gift is strength.”

His mind was made up. There wasn’t anything she could do. Everything he said made complete sense, but there was some stupid, crazy part of her that didn’t want to let him leave. But she had to.

As he walked over to the window, his escape route prepared, she trudged over behind him. “Wonho…”

The village was dark enough. He sat on the windowsill, surveying the quiet alley behind the house, before turning back to her. “Maybe once this is all over…” he mused, “I’ll go back to being Hoseok.”

 “What are you going to do?” she asked.

He grinned, “Not telling.”

 “Well that’s not concerning at all,” Rose replied sarcastically. Underneath the sarcasm, her mind was running wild. She wanted to say something, but as she stared at him, sitting on the window ledge, ready to run, she couldn’t quite get it out.

 “Don’t let me be a concern of yours from now on,” he said. “But do me a favour and stay out of trouble, yeah?”

She shrugged, giving him her own grin. “No promises there. As you said, I’ve always been a code-breaker, apparently.”

There was something in his eyes. He was trying to conceal it, but she definitely saw something.

As for what it was, she couldn’t quite pick it.

His voice was quiet when he spoke again, his gaze never leaving hers. “We all know what happens to code-breakers,” he said.

Rose nodded. They were both code-breakers. Several times over in fact, and the consequences were rarely spoken of because it was so taboo. Now it was going to happen to Shownu. But Rose would do it all again, just to see those beautiful smiles that Wonho gave her.

It was time to leave. He smiled at her, nodding his goodbye, before he looked to the alley. Instead of jumping out though, he stayed there for a moment and then quickly turned back to her.  

Rose was confused at why he was hesitating, but in the next moment he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. 

She was looking up at him in surprise, but he just leant down to press a soft kiss to her cheek. His breath was warm on her skin, and it made her mark burn like nothing she’d ever felt before. He had a soft smile on his face when he pulled back.

 “Thank you,” he murmured. “For everything.”

Then he slipped out the window and in a second he was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Hyungwon instantly knew something was wrong.

He’d just returned after his shift at the sanctuary, and the minute he’d opened the door, he spotted Rose sitting by the window, looking out into the dark alley.

He glanced around the room, “Where’s Wonho?”

By the time Rose turned to look at him, he had already guessed. “He’s gone,” she said. She explained how the mediators had come to their house during the day, as well as the news about Shownu, solidifying Wonho’s decision to leave.

Hyungwon could tell that she was upset, not just because healers were so in tune with people, but because he’d known her his whole life, and all her mannerisms just screamed it right now. She looked at ease, but he knew better. He walked over to sit in front of her.

 “I know how much you enjoyed his company,” he said. “And don’t hate me for saying this, but it’s probably for the best.”

She looked to the side, “I know,” she said, “He said the same thing.” At least they were in the clear now. Despite how empty she felt all of a sudden. She glanced down at her wrist. The purple had been there on her mark before, after Wonho had grabbed her hand. Now though, it was gone.

She’d wanted to say something when he’d been sitting there at the window, but she just hadn’t been able to get the words out. They floated around in her head now…

_Will I see you again?_

 “I’m sorry for dragging you into this,” She said then, surprising her brother. “If something had happened-”

 “Don’t be,” Hyungwon leant forwards and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You know I’ve always trusted your judgement, as you do mine. And even though it was against the code…you did a good thing. You saved a life. I’m proud of you for that.”

She smiled at him, then. “Thank you.”

…

The village was dark, and the air was cold, but that wasn’t why Wonho’s feet were dragging. He’d had no idea just how hard it would be to walk away from that house. Being around Rose had made him feel so renewed and happy for some strange reason, and it was as if as soon as he left it was all ripped away from him.

But she was the reason he was leaving. If he’d stayed any longer, and they’d been found out, he never would have been able to forgive himself. Not after everything she had done for him. Not after how hard Hyungwon had been working at the sanctuary in order to keep up the charade, and not after Changkyun had run back and forth checking in on them and keeping them updated.

This mess was his to sort out and he wasn’t going to bring anybody else down with him.

No matter how empty he felt.

…

A week later, and life had gone back to normal for Rose. See patient, heal patient, find new patient. If she thought it had been boring before, now it was the epitome of dull. She didn’t understand, she’d enjoyed her job before, even though it got boring sometimes, but now it just…something wasn’t right.

As stupid as it sounded, it felt like she was missing something. Everything was exactly the same as it was before, but somewhere between then and now, she’d lost something.

Of course, there was the obvious – Wonho – but what she didn’t understand was that she hadn’t felt like this before she met him. This…emptiness, didn’t exist before then. How on earth could he have carved his own little space in her heart to abandon so quickly? These thoughts tormented her daily, and it frustrated her. She’d never find her answer, she knew that for sure.

She was out the back of the sanctuary today, hanging out the sheets she’d just washed from the beds. As usual, there were other healers milling about the village, going to and from the square, doing their daily duties.

Just next to the sanctuary, there was a mother and daughter sitting on their porch. The girl appeared to be drawing on her arm, while the mother sat reading a book.

 “Mama,” the little girl said then, thrusting her arm towards the woman. “Look!”

Rose overheard the girl’s enthusiasm and glanced over curiously. The mother had looked over her book and creased her eyebrows.

 “Honey, why did you colour in your mark?”

The girl looked very proud of herself, “I have a special person,” she stated.

“A special what?” her mother seemed to have no clue what she was talking about.

 “Someone at school told me a story,” the girl went on to explain. “That everyone has a special person, born just for them. And their mark goes like this,” she held up her wrist again, that she’d coloured in.

The mother had ben dumbfounded at the idea, but Rose was staring at them. Something about that was familiar. But what could it-

Her eyes went wide. That story. She’d heard that story before.

When she was very young, her mother had told her that story. About the girl who wandered all through her village, looking for something. She looked and looked and looked, but hadn’t been able to find what she was after. Just as she had given up, someone had approached her, having been looking for the same thing. When they’d joined hands, their marks filled in.

It was a very old story, a fairy tale that was so ancient it had practically died out. The mediators never seemed fond of their stories, either; always reminded the villagers that they were silly.

And it was silly. _Soulmates_ they were called. Those who had heard the word knew that they didn’t exist. Never had someone’s mark ever been more than just an outline of their symbol. And as for love – well, it wasn’t everyone’s first priority here, which was why it was so easy for so many people to give up their children to other villages.

Rose sighed and continued hanging out the sheets. No wonder the story was barely told anymore – it was a silly concept. The things she was feeling wasn’t some fairy tale, either. Just because she didn’t understand it didn’t mean she had to start grasping at straws.

After all, Wonho was of another aura. Only people of the same colour aura were supposed to be together. Well, that’s what they had been told for generations.

As she picked up the basket and walked back inside, a crazy thought crossed her mind.

_What if the reason why there’s never been any soulmates before, is because they’re always going to be a different aura to you?_

She shook her head straight away, that was ridiculous. The code had been in place for centuries preventing that.

But then again, she’d gone over her time limit several times with Wonho. What had that been about? The code was supposed to be protecting them from some devastating effect on their aura’s.

With one question, just came others, and it exhausted her. She decided she’d had enough silly thoughts for one day – if anything was going to end her it would be wishful thinking for sure.

…

Once Rose had finished her shift at the sanctuary, she was walking through the village back to her house. It was late in the day, so not a lot of people were around, as everyone was settling into their houses, preparing dinner, and winding down after the day. Just ahead of her, there was a man and his horse pulling along a cart of supplies from the centre square. The wooden wheels rattled along the stone path at a steady pace, so she caught up to it easily.

Just as Rose was walking past the cart, something long and brown slithered out onto the path. A snake.

Instantly, the horse started to freak. Horses hated snakes, and this horse was so spooked by it, that it kicked out at the cart it was pulling, knocking it off its wheels.

Rose had barely had enough time to gasp before the cart toppled over towards her. She hadn’t even been able to throw her hands up, it just crashed down right on top of her, as the snake slithered away under one of the houses. She hit the ground with a harsh thud, the weight of the cart probably bruising her side. Adrenaline pumping, she shoved at it with her free arm, and it moved easily, tipping back upright.

She looked to the man. He looked back at her with his jaw gaping. She’d just pushed an entire cart off herself with one hand. It had taken a horse just to pull it along.

_How did I do that?_

Her own eyes were wide with the realisation, and she glanced down at her wrist when she felt her mark sting.

She could see purple.

Now her heart was pounding. Rose scrambled to her feet, and instantly dashed down the stone path, in the opposite direction to where she’d been headed. She needed to find Changkyun. He’d been patrolling this afternoon, she only hoped he hadn’t left the village yet.

She bolted through a small gap between two houses and saw him on his way to the gates. Staying in the space, trying not to be seen by the other mediators, she tried to grab his attention.

 “Kyun!” She whispered as violently as possible. “Kyun!” he hadn’t heard her, so she then picked up a pebble and pegged it at him.

“Ow! What the-?”

He’d spun around, and as soon as he saw her, he looked surprised, but she waved her hands at him in urgency, so he figured it must have been important, and slipped away from the gates.

Once he was in the safe space between the houses, she jumped on him.

 “Do you know where Wonho is?” she asked, “Have you heard anything?”

He was caught off guard by the sudden question, but he nodded. “I have, actually. But, well, I don’t think-”

 “Tell me,” she said, “I need to find him.”

He shook his head, “That’s the thing,” he said, glancing to the side. His hesitation did not give Rose a good feeling.  “He’s gone.”

Rose blinked at him. “What?”

He moved to explain, “Father was talking about it this morning. He broke Shownu out of the warrior camp and they fled the city.”

That word didn’t sound like it was supposed to be in her vocabulary. _Gone._ “But how?” she said. “Nobody can get out of the city, it’s impossible!”

 “Apparently not,” he said sadly, “Though they’ve got no idea how they managed to get out.” He glanced behind himself, knowing he should get back to the centre square.

Hyungwon wasn’t the only one who’d noticed how fond Rose had grown of her latest patient, and Changkyun hated being the one to have to deliver that news to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Rose.”

…

 “Nothing is making any sense anymore.”

Rose was pacing back and forth across the floorboards in their house, as Hyungwon watched her with concern.

“What was that story you mentioned?” he asked her.

 “Don’t you remember?” she asked, turning to him. “Mother used to tell it all the time, until the Mediators got pissed off. There was a girl who was looking for something – her soul mate – and when she found them her mark filled in. I mean, I know it’s just an old folk tale, but how do you explain this?!”

She held out her wrist, showing him the purple still in her mark. It wasn’t filled in like in the story, but it was still there – though it had started to fade again. “I didn’t think that much of it before, but…” She finally sat down, plopping onto the chair beside him. “Something is wrong. I spent so much time with Wonho and instead of our aura’s being damaged it feels like the opposite. I mean, I have his gift! I pushed an entire cart off me with one hand, that’s not physically possible!”

Hyungwon had been deep in thought, and when she finished her rant, he spoke. “Do you think he has yours?”

She was staring hard at the wall. “I think we’re being lied to,” she said finally. 

 “By who?” Hyungwon asked her.

She turned back to him, “The only people who can lie and get away with it.”

...

The centre square was just as busy as it always was, with people of all colour aura’s bustling about, trying to get everything done that they needed to within their time limit. Despite the fact that they all seemed to be minding their own business, each on their own little mission, Rose couldn’t help but feel that there were more eyes than usual following her today.

She was used to a couple of the mediators recognising her and keeping an eye on her time limit – especially Changkyun’s father, thank goodness her friendship with him was still unknown to the man – but today she just had this unsettling feeling. That she was _really_ being watched.

As she walked through the square, she kept casting glances around her, but the people moving past weren’t staring. Or if they were, they looked away just in time.

If this had happened before, she wouldn’t have been so bothered. But now – now that she’d broken the code several times and had experienced something that was unheard of – she wanted nothing more than to stay under the radar.

She shook her head and hurried over to Minhyuk’s stall. She hadn’t seen him for a few days and could do with his bright smile right about now.

After pushing past a few other villagers, she finally spotted him. He was handing an Innovator a bag of goods, and as soon as they started walking away, he spotted her.

Minhyuk froze for a moment.

That unsettling feeling in Rose’s gut then doubled, as he quickly put his head down as she approached his stall.

He wasn’t going to give her that bright smile, she realised with dread. Something was wrong.

 “Minhyuk…?” she asked, glancing around at the mediators nearby. They were minding their own business from the looks of it. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t look at her. “I think you might prefer the goods at another stall,” he said simply, turning to shuffle the items around in his cart.

It felt like a knife, the way he turned his back on her. Rose didn’t know what was going on, but it hurt. “I’m sorry?” she didn’t understand why he would be doing this.

 “I’m afraid I cannot assist you, ma’am,” he replied, his back still facing her. “Now if you could please move along, there are others I need to serve.”

She didn’t know what was going on, but he’d made himself pretty clear. She took a step back, and then finally turned, and walked straight out of the square. She didn’t even go to another stall. She was hurt. Why would her friend turn his back on her like that?

She considered stopping by the Sanctuary to see Hyungwon, but he was probably busy. Changkyun wasn’t patrolling her village today either, so that left her with one lonely empty house to return to with no food in her bag.

She couldn’t help but think of Wonho. Maybe there was some alternate universe where she would return home and he would still be there, reading one of her books by the window.

But he wasn’t. She knew that already. She glanced at her wrist as she walked back towards her home. The purple was gone. Nothing was left of him.

 “Excuse me.”

Rose was surprised by a voice in front of her, and she stopped suddenly, looking back up. She was met with two mediators. They must have been the ones patrolling.

 “Can I help you?” she asked.

 “Only by giving us a moment of your time,” one of them said. “There has been some strange activity as of late and so the advisors thought it would be best to undergo a random survey of the villagers.”

That unsettling feeling was still there in Rose’s gut. “And how does the survey work?” she asked.

 “It’s quite simple,” the other man explained. “We ask one question, and you will answer yes or no.”

 “Sounds easy,” she responded.

 “Here’s our question…” The other jumped straight in. “Have you broken the code?”

And there it was. The one question that could ruin her.

She hadn’t thought of it at all when she’d been writing letters to Kihyun. It didn’t feel like she’d been a code-breaker then, though technically, since she’d made contact with her biological family from another village, she was.

She hadn’t thought of it when she dragged Wonho over to the storage room, either. She didn’t feel like a code-breaker, because she felt she was doing the right thing – her job in fact – by saving a life.

But it had been like a domino effect. One code broken, two codes broken, several codes broken. She even ‘lied’ as such to a mediator’s face. Technically, it hadn’t been a lie, as she’d used the word ‘warrior’, which Wonho was not, but they had been asking about him specifically, and she had been hiding him.

She’d thought about being a code-breaker then. The possible repercussions – which Wonho did remind her of just before he left – but she’d decided it was worth it. He was worth it.

And he still was. But there was nothing she could do about it now.

She closed her eyes, suddenly grateful that he had left before she’d been asked this question.

 “Yes,” she said, “I have broken the code.”


	6. Chapter 6

Hyungwon was confused.

Having just come home after his shift at the sanctuary, he’d expected Rose to be here. Instead, the house was dark and quiet. He walked around the room, trying to find evidence of what she’d done today, or if there was a reason she would still be out. Then, he spotted something.

On the table was an envelope. It wasn’t labelled, so Hyungwon picked it up curiously, opening it. There were two sheets of paper inside, each with different handwriting on them. The first one was short.

_‘Dropped by today but nobody was home. This is for Rose._

_Take care_

- _CK’_

It didn’t look like the letters Rose usually received from Kihyun, so out of curiosity, Hyungwon looked at the other sheet of paper. It seemed to be some kind of apology. He looked at the bottom, and saw the familiar name. Minhyuk.

He didn’t bother reading the rest as it wasn’t his, and it made no sense to him anyway. What on earth was going on?

And where was Rose?

…

When the sun rose on the next day, Changkyun had a feeling of dread in his stomach. He’d ignored it originally, but by the time he began his patrol in the Engineer’s village, that feeling had been given meaning.

The source of that meaning, was Jooheon grabbing him by the arm and violently yanking him away from the main street, apparently having something urgent to tell him. This was becoming quite the common occurrence.

After several minutes of hushed whispers, the feeling in Changkyun’s gut had become a wretched one.

His eyes were wide. He’d known there was a possibility of this happening, but he’d always hoped it wouldn’t. Or at least, he would have been able to prevent it.

He grabbed Jooheon by the shoulders, “Are you absolutely sure that’s what you saw?”

 “One hundred percent,” Jooheon responded. He’d been in the mediator’s village yesterday, working on the roof of the advisor’s hall. When he glanced down, he’d never expected to see someone he knew.

But it was. Rose had been in the mediator’s village, being escorted straight into the advisor’s hall.

That only meant one thing. Changkyun raised a hand to cover his eyes, “Shit.”

…

Changkyun’s father was one of the five advisors in the mediator’s village. Each village had its own system of leaders – like how the Warriors had their Commander – and the advisors were the top of the Grey village.

Rose felt like she must have been pretty important if Advisor Im were the one sitting across from her now.

Yesterday had been fairly uneventful. After her admission, she’d been taken straight to the mediator’s village, and dumped in a cell for the rest of the day. Apparently, they had been waiting for this man to be free from his oh so busy schedule, as he’d been adamant on being the one to talk to her.

So, here they were.

He had his elbows on the desk, hands supporting his chin as he stared her down. Rose was staring back blankly, tapping her fingers out of boredom.

She finally decided to break the silence. “Isn’t this the part where you ask me something?”

 “No, no, I want to guess this myself,” he said then, apparently finding amusement in the situation. “Our first real code-breaker in a decade, and it’s you. This has to be something good.”

Rose had to supress a chuckle as a thought crossed her mind.

_I’m not the first_ , _but you keep thinking that._

 “Surely it isn’t to do with your time limit?” he asked, as if that were too boring.

Rose shook her head, “Nope.” She then reconsidered, “Oh well, kind of? It’s part of it.”

She watched his eye twitch at trying to read that confusing sentence. The fact that she wasn’t sure of the answer herself made it hard to read, but he saw it as truth.

He made a few more guesses, but they were all wrong. Eventually, he threw his hands into the air. “Fine. Tell me then. What makes you a code-breaker?”

Knowing what she now faced, Rose seemed to have stopped caring about a lot of things since yesterday. She’d never had a huge respect for authority, as the mediators she encountered were always dicks to her, but she was never one for making smart remarks.

Now, it didn’t seem like it mattered.

She grinned, “I was the reason you lost your last code-breaker.”

…

Changkyun and Jooheon were on a mission. They’d made their way into the Innovator’s village, and thanks to Changkyun being a mediator, he was able to give Jooheon all the clearance he needed, under the guise of it being a maintenance visit. Out of everyone involved in this operation, Jooheon was the easiest to get into places, due to him being an Engineer. Despite that, they still needed to get in and out as fast as possible, to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves.

When they finally made it to Kihyun’s quarters, one room out of a hundred in this damn building, they knocked to find the door was already open. Instead of seeing their friend, they were met with someone else.

The pair stared at the Innovator who appeared to be…cleaning? He was organising the scattered items on Kihyun’s desk into a box. He stopped when he saw he had company.

 “Can I help you?” he asked. Changkyun just stared at him. “Oh, are you looking for Kihyun? Didn’t you hear?”

 “Hear what?” the mediator asked.

The man shook his head as he opened the draws of Kihyun’s desk, “He’s a code-breaker. They caught him trying to sneak into the farmer’s village without clearance. Got one of the farmers too, for helping him.”

…

 “So, you were involved with the Warrior boy,” the advisor said, leaning forwards in his chair. “How is it, I wonder, that you managed to evade us when we searched the whole village for that bastard?”

 “He’s not a Warrior,” she answered simply.

 “We know that. Answer my question.”

She blinked at him, “But I did answer your question.”

The look on his face was actually quite amusing. Who knew you could have fun telling the truth? Then again, Rose had never had such interesting information to tell before.

“Elaborate,” he demanded.

Rose threw her head back, surely these guys weren’t that daft. Changkyun had a good head on his shoulders, he mustn’t have gotten that from his father. “Your men were looking for a Warrior,” she explained. “I wasn’t hiding a Warrior.”

 “Where is he now, then?”

That’s when Rose realised something. Back when Wonho had left, she’d asked him what he was going to do. And what was his answer?

_“Not telling.”_

That boy was a genius. He wasn’t just being annoying and mysterious, he’d actually been helping her by withholding information. That way she had no need to lie when it came to being confronted.

She couldn’t help but smile, “I have no idea.”

His gaze hardened on her, “Will you help us find him?”

Well that was an easy question. “Nope.”

 “Rose.” The man leaned back in his chair, as his usual air of superiority returned. “Do you know what happens to code-breakers?”

She decided to meet his attitude with indifference. “I have a pretty good idea,” she shrugged.

He moved to explain, anyway. “They are branded as code-breakers.”

 “Like livestock,” Rose added.

He ignored her comment. “One very hot branding rod, right here,” he indicated to the mark on his wrist. “Not only is that extremely painful, but I’ve heard the affect it has on one’s aura is quite detrimental.”

 “You know, you guys talk a lot about aura’s being damaged but as a code-breaker, I can’t say it makes all that much sense.”

 “In other words,” he said then, not even acknowledging what she had said, “If the branding doesn’t kill you, you’ll wish it did.” 

“And as a sadistic son of a bitch, I’m sure you’ll enjoy that either way.”

 “Unless,” he said then, leaning forwards again. “You decide to help us find your runaway friend. Surely you would have an idea as to where he could have gone. If you do that, we won’t brand you as code-breaker. How’s that for a deal?”

Rose folded her arms, “I don’t need to be a mediator to know that’s a lie. You’ll brand me anyway.”

 “Alright,” he sat back in his chair, folding his arms also. “Then how about your brother?”

…

A pair of feet skidded across the stones in a back alley of the Healer’s village. He’d heard somebody around the corner, and instantly threw an arm out to stop the man who’d been running behind him. They stayed in the shadow of an awning as they listened to footsteps on the stones. As soon as they were far enough away, the man peeked out around the corner.

 “We’re good,” he whispered, “Let’s go.”

Their target was only a few houses away. The pair ducked out from under the awning and made a beeline for the next row of houses. They managed to squeeze through between two of them, and in a few moments, they’d slipped up onto the porch.

 “Are you sure this is the right house?” One of them murmured to the other. “They all look the same.”

Even though he’d only been there once, he’d made sure that he could make his way back if needed.

 “I’m sure,” Wonho replied. He quickly glanced around them, before knocking in a familiar sequence, and slipping inside, Shownu quickly following behind him.

What they saw when they entered wasn’t quite what they’d expected to see.

The whole place was in shambles. Chairs overturned, books scattered across the floor in front of the shelves, mattress pulled from the bed, it looked like chaos. The kitchen was no better either – the draws had all been pulled out and thrown on the floor, utensils scattered everywhere, cupboard doors wide open.

Wonho stared at it all with wide eyes. It felt like a lead weight had dropped in his stomach. He couldn’t fathom what this meant. “Oh no…” he walked further into the room, looking at every detail. Panic began to set into his bones. “No, no, no, no!”

Shownu was still standing by the door, his gut rolling with dread. He couldn’t help but think that if he hadn’t have gotten himself injured while escaping the Warrior camp, that they could have made it back here in time. He watched Wonho turn and walk over to the table, shuffling through papers in a panic. He was trying to find something – anything that could give them a hint as to what had happened. Anything but the worst.

 “It can’t be…” he was muttering to himself. “Please, please, please…”

Shownu closed his eyes for a moment, before walking over to place a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Wonho,” he murmured, “I think we’re too late. I’m sorry.”

A heavy sigh fell from Wonho’s lips, as he took a step back and down onto the only chair left standing.

He dropped his head into his hands, “No…”

If only he’d known before he left. Sure, the signs had all been there – the way his mark reacted when they’d held hands, the white appearing on his skin, the warmth he felt whenever he was near her.

It had all been so surreal – and neither of them had known what on earth was going on. He doubted she’d been able to figure it out at the time, either.

But the longer they’d been apart, the more it had hurt. He constantly felt like he was missing an essential part of him. And then – the craziest thing of all – when Shownu had been wounded during their escape, Wonho had used Rose’s gift to heal him.

This was supposed to be impossible. Every code he had broken was supposed to be impossible, or extremely dangerous, and yet here he was, still standing and accomplishing things that were unheard of.

But even so, he was too late. She was gone.

Through his fingers, he could see the bed he’d spent all his time in, the mattress now half pulled off it. Rose had sat in this very chair by his side for so long. No matter how exhausted she must have been, she never left him. Even after the worst of it was over.

_“Alright dummy, that’s enough lip outta you,” Rose teased. “Go to sleep already.”_

_Wonho was chuckling. “Okay,” he relented, making himself comfortable again. After a moment, he felt the need to ask, “You’ll stay, won’t you?”_

_She smiled, reaching out to grab his hand, “Of course.”_

 “No,” Wonho said suddenly, lifting his head up. There was a different tone to his voice now, more stubborn than the hopeless air he’d had before. “No, it’s never too late,” he said, standing up again. He pointed a finger at Shownu, “You said that yourself.”

Shownu quirked an eyebrow.

 “When I collapsed in the chamber,” Wonho explained, “They said I was a lost cause if I couldn’t handle it, but you said otherwise. You didn’t give up on me.”

 “Of course not,” Shownu responded easily.

 “And I’m not giving up on her,” Wonho said. “I broke you out, surely it can’t be that hard.” 

Shownu thought to himself, “Rose and her brother would most likely be in the Mediator’s village. Their security would be different, the warriors aren’t supposed to hold prisoners. Not to mention I was being escorted from my makeshift cell when you came.”

Wonho was shaking his head, “I don’t care,” he said. “I’m gonna go get them. Are you with me?”

Shownu didn’t even hesitate, nodding as he answered, “Always.”

…

Rose had lost her ability to talk back by the time she was escorted back to her cell. She’d accepted her fate already, but Hyungwon? She felt sick at the thought of ruining his life as well.

Good old Advisor Im hadn’t told her where he was, only that he was in custody as well, and unless Rose helped them find Wonho, he would be branded with her.

She still didn’t trust them; no doubt they would call him code-breaker regardless. If they considered Shownu a code-breaker then of course Hyungwon would be too.

The metal door squealed as it shut behind her, and Rose walked up to the back of the cell, leaning against the stone wall, and sliding down to the ground. She couldn’t even see her brother. She’d probably never see Hyungwon again. Just like Wonho. Just like Changkyun and the rest of her friends.

As long as she hadn’t dragged anybody else down with her, that would be the best she could ask for right now.

Rose lifted her head, and leaned it back against the wall. What now? Was this the painful waiting game before the mediators branded her a code-breaker and destroyed her aura?

She sighed, her head rolling to the side, when her eyes caught sight of something in the cell beside hers. Not something, someone.

She hadn’t realised there’d been anybody else here. But on the other side of the bars, there was a person. They mustn’t have been conscious, as they were lying on the concrete. What on earth had happened to them? Curiously, she shuffled over, closer to the bars.

That’s when she noticed the blood running down the side of his face, as if he had taken quite the beating. She jumped up and walked over to get a closer look. By the time she reached the bars, her eyes were wide.

She knew that face.

He looked a lot older now than in the photo she had seen. The polaroid that was back in her house, hidden between the pages of an old book had a smiling teenager in it. She could remember the photo perfectly – he’d been holding up the set of blueprints that had earned him the spot of one of the best graduating students in the Innovators village.

It was her brother. Her real brother.

 “Kihyun…” she couldn’t believe it. She sank to her knees. If she’d ever thought of finally meeting him in person, this would have been the last circumstances she ever could have imagined.

As soon as she’d recovered from her shock, she quickly reached through the bars. She needed to heal him. Sadness encased her in the next moment though, as she realised she couldn’t reach him.

She sat back, staring at him. “What the hell did you do to get yourself here?” she wondered.

Then, he moved.

Rose watched intently as he groaned, his head rolling to the side.

 “Kihyun,” she said straight away, “Kihyun, can you hear me?”

His face scrunched up in confusion as he slowly came to his senses, “Wha…?”

Finally, his eyes began to open, and the first thing he saw was a figure on the other side of the bars. He blinked a few times, hand lifting to his head which was pounding, but when his gaze focused on her face, his mind was telling him that he recognised it.

It couldn’t be. He must have hit his head too hard.

“Rose…” he managed to murmur. “Is that you?”


	7. Chapter 7

“In hindsight…I probably shouldn’t have tried to run.”

Rose and Kihyun were now sitting back to back against the bars, their quiet voices echoing off the stone walls. Thanks to Rose’s gift, Kihyun now felt a lot better. He still had a headache, but it was nowhere near the pain he’d been feeling before, and the wound on his forehead had stopped bleeding and would soon be just a feint scar.

 “I can see why you did,” Rose responded. “But it still wasn’t smart, no,” she agreed. “Isn’t that supposed to be your gift?” she teased then.

Kihyun shrugged, “I panicked.” He’d explained how he was caught sneaking into the farmer’s village while trying to see a friend.  He’d done it numerous times before, but just hadn’t been careful enough this time. “Your turn,” he said then. “Why the hell are you here?”

Rose couldn’t help but laugh. “Did you hear about the warrior trainee on the run?” she asked.

 “Yeah,” Kihyun replied. “The Mediators came and searched our village, they questioned everybody.”

She found herself tracing the outline of her mark, all white. “I was hiding him.”

Kihyun sat forwards to turn his head towards her, “You what?!”

Rose was smiling as she glanced back through the bars at him. “He was brought to the sanctuary and when the Warriors came for him, I decided to hide him instead. That aura time limit thing by the way? It’s bull.”

“Well good cause our time limit was up five minutes ago,” Kihyun responded with a chuckle.

Silence fell over them for a moment. It was strange, finally being able to talk to him like this. Like they knew each other, but didn’t.

“Well…” Kihyun said after a moment, “As bad as this situation is, I’m glad I got to see you. I just wish it didn’t have to be like this.”

Rose dropped her head back onto the bars, “Same here, Ki…Same here.”

...

Changkyun and Jooheon stood on the edge of the centre square, by the gates to the Engineer’s village. They’d been talking plans all day, but they weren’t getting anywhere. Not anything substantial anyway.

 “It’s the best we can do,” Jooheon was saying, “We’re out of options.”

Changkyun ran a hand through his hair, “We can’t do it just the two of us,” he said. “We’d need more people.”

It was then that a pebble hit Changkyun in the back. He turned around, confused. All he saw was a hand that reached out from behind the wall, signalling for him to come over. He glanced at Jooheon, and they shared a look. Jooheon shrugged.

They both decided to walk over and slip into the small space between the wall and one of the buildings. What they were met with, were two hooded men.

When Wonho showed his face, Changkyun’s jaw dropped.

 “You called?” he said with a grin.

A matter of minutes later, and they had a plan. Now that they had the numbers, they had confidence that they could actually pull this off. They just had to be very, very careful. One mistake, and they could find themselves all getting branded.

Changkyun could get them into the mediators village, that was easy enough. But as soon as they were inside the Advisor’s hall – that’s when it got tricky. They were all relying on Kyun’s knowledge of the village and its occupants, which put a lot of pressure on him, but what was new?

They slipped into the hall while the mediators on guard were swapping shifts. Kyun had made sure that Shownu, Jooheon, and Wonho all knew which turns to take, as it was likely they could get split up. There were various ‘landmarks’ inside the halls and walkways that could help them, and he’d made then recite them back to him before they’d made a move. He’d hoped that they wouldn’t be separated, but lady luck wasn’t quite on their side as the minute Changkyun had been spotted by a fellow mediator, he’d been told his father was looking for him.

Keeping up the maintenance charade, he’d told them he’d find his father once he was done ‘escorting’ the Engineer to his job. Shownu and Wonho had to make their way through the halls much more discreetly, only moving after Changkyun had signalled. Now though, they were on their own.

 “You know where to go,” Changkyun murmured quietly when they had a moment of privacy. “I’ll meet back up with you as soon as I can. And Jooheon-” he turned to the man whose job was to be the distraction. “Don’t overdo it.”

The last thing Changkyun saw was Jooheon’s grin, before he turned and headed in the opposite direction, towards his father’s office on the top floor.

When he entered, the man known only as Advisor Im was standing by the book case, idly running a hand across the leather backs. “Ah, son. It’s so nice of you to finally join me,” he said, his smooth voice pleasant. However, Changkyun could hear the hint of sarcasm. He didn’t turn away from the book case, choosing to keep his back to the young man. “I feel like you never spend any time in your own village anymore.”

Changkyun didn’t feel the need to give him a response. Finally, his father turned around to look at him. “Sit boy, you’ve been here enough times to not need an invitation.”

He took a step into the room but didn’t sit down. “Will this take long? I was in the middle of a job.”

His father had moved over to the desk, his hands resting on the fine wood. “That depends, my boy, how co-operative you are.”

Changkyun quirked an eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

In a split second, the mood had changed, and his fathers gaze turned into narrow slits.

 “Were you or were you not the mediator in the sanctuary on the day that the warrior boy went missing?”

Changkyun tried not to let the surprise show on his face. He should have known this would come back to him if Rose were caught. He swallowed, “There were other mediators-”

His father continued, cutting him off, “The healer was asked a question. Statements from the Commander say that she was proven to be telling the truth by a mediator. That same healer is now in custody for being a code-breaker. And which mediator was it that said she was telling the truth?”

Changkyun chose not to answer. His father’s gaze was boring into him, never wavering, or looking away.

 “You know, I always wondered why you seemed to spend so much time in the Healer’s village,” he went on, finally moving from his position to wander over to the window. The set of his shoulders still showed the air of superiority he carried everywhere. “Care to enlighten me as to why you felt the need to befriend a healer of all people?” he glanced back at Changkyun.

Hands behind his back, the young man just shrugged.

Turning around, his father’s expression was a mixture of confusion and anger. “There are dozens of mediators in this village who would bend to your every whim if you only so asked,” he stressed.

 “Perhaps that’s why I don’t,” Changkyun answered simply. “Not to mention this village is full of desperate sheep trying to climb over each other to gain power.”  

 “But we are the ones that _have_ the power,” his father said. “This is the top of the entire city! What more could you want than to be where you are right now?”

Once again, Changkyun decided not to answer, and only met his father’s gaze evenly.

 “All you had to do, was keep those bastards in line, and uphold the code. Why couldn’t you just do that?” All he received in response was a shrug. The advisor sighed in anger, finally sitting down.

 “I’m disappointed in you,” he said, eyes still narrow. “The others were right that I was too lenient. And now if word gets out that _my son_ has broken the code, not only that but helped two code breakers evade us, then our entire family legacy is ruined. I am ruined. And that is _not_ going to happen.” He leaned forward in his seat, placing clasped hands on the desk in front of him. “So, this is what is going to happen. Your friend is going to be branded a code-breaker. You were never in that sanctuary and have had nothing to do with this. And from now on, you will not leave my sight.”

Changkyun’s heart had started to pound. “But-”

[C] “And, as a bonus,” his father continued, finally appearing pleased with himself. “When your friend is put on the podium to have her aura destroyed,” he said, “You’re going to be the one to do it.”

...

 “Did you see the last one?”

 “Hm?” Rose turned her head slightly, not understanding Kihyun’s question. At least she had someone to pass the time with, despite what they were waiting for.

They’d turned around to face each other now. Rose had her legs crossed while her brother had his splayed out in front of him, leaning back on his hands.

 “The last codebreaker,” he elaborated, “Did you see him get branded?”

The last time they’d had a codebreaker – or one that was caught, at least – was a decade ago. Rose had barely been a teenager at the time, but she could remember standing in the centre square with Hyungwon and her mother, as the man was escorted up onto the podium. To say it was very unpleasant to watch someone scream in agony was an understatement at best.

It was a scare tactic. They could undergo their inhumane punishment in secret, but making it a public spectacle reminded everyone else on what would happen if they decided to take the same path. The Advisors said that if you couldn’t follow the code that was in place to protect your aura, then you didn’t deserve to have an aura.

Rose had only seen the branding once in her life, but from what she’d heard and read about, the effects of it was different on each person.

 “Yeah,” she responded to Kihyun. “I saw it.”

He thought to himself for a moment, chewing on his lip. “It killed him, didn’t it?”

Rose shook her head, “The branding itself didn’t kill him. His aura was just strong enough to survive it, but what was left of it couldn’t keep him going. I think he lasted maybe a week after that.”

 “And…” Kihyun had been staring at the floor, but he looked up to meet her gaze again, “What do you think of mine?”

When Rose had witnessed the last branding, she’d still been learning how to read aura’s. As that was her only comparison, it was hard to tell.

She tilted her head, “Well, your aura isn’t weak,” she said. “But it’s not particularly strong, either. I couldn’t sense it when I first arrived.”

Kihyun nodded, accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to know if today was his last day or not. “And yours?” he asked then.

Rose let out a dry laugh, “Hyungwon always told me I had a strong aura. I was terrible at hide and seek as a kid cause I couldn’t conceal it.”

 “So, you could survive,” he said, sounding a little hopeful.

Rose shook her head, “If you can call it surviving. The advisors say it’s better to be dead than live with a damaged aura; it would be torture. Not to mention it removes your gift.”

Kihyun couldn’t imagine not having his gift. It was a part of him – he wouldn’t be Kihyun if his mind didn’t work the way it did. He supposed that would be the same for everybody no matter what their gift was.

They were interrupted from their idle chatter when they heard the door open down the end of the cell block. The mediators only came to visit to give them a tiny bowl of food so they didn’t starve before the branding.

They couldn’t see who it was who had entered, but Rose sat up when she heard light, hurried footsteps.

In the next moment, they appeared, running through the cell block, eyes scanning left and right for something. Upon seeing her, he skidded to a stop.

It was Wonho.

His face was that of utter relief as he came up to the bars, and Rose scrambled to her feet, eyes wide and jaw agape.

 “Rose,” he breathed, as she went straight to him, unable to fathom that he had gotten all the way in here, and was now standing right in front of her.

 “Wonho,” she managed in response, still staring at him with wide eyes. Her hands grasped the bars between them, “You came back.”

He broke into a breathless smile, then. “Of course I did,” he murmured. “I left something behind.”

Rose’s expression turned to one of confusion. “What…?”

He was looking at her like he’d spent his entire life looking for the sun, and had finally found her. He glanced down for a moment, that smile still on his face. When his gaze met hers again, he responded.

 “My heart.”

It was so beautifully cheesy, Rose couldn’t help but laugh, but it filled her with so much warmth. Especially when Wonho moved to place his hands over hers where they grasped the bars. She could feel her mark react to him, and she welcomed it with everything she had.

 “You feel that too, right?” he asked her then, glancing down at their hands before hopeful eyes met hers again.

She was smiling widely at him, “Yes,” she said. “I know what it is, now.”

 “So do I,” he beamed, grabbing her hand properly. He watched the splashes of white return to his mark, and the purple to hers. “As soon as Shownu arrives,” he said, squeezing her hand, “We’ll get you out of here.”

Kihyun wanted to point out that he was there, too, but didn’t want to interrupt their moment. He could see now why Rose had been hiding this guy, though.

Wonho tugged on Rose’s hand, bringing it to his lips. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured, kissing the back of her hand. “I should never have left you.”

She tilted her head, about to argue, “Wonho-”

The door at the end of the cellblock opened again, and another person ran in. Rose and Wonho both turned their heads to see Shownu’s panicked face.

 “Mediators,” he breathed, eyes wide. “Lots of them. Coming this way.”

Wonho glanced back to Rose in panic. “But-”

 “It’s okay,” Rose said straight away. “You need to hide. They’ll probably be gone in a few minutes.”

He still wanted to protest, “But-”

She used the same voice on him that she had when the mediators had come to her house. “Go,” she said firmly. Even as Shownu grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him down to the end of the cell block, Wonho still stared after her. She didn’t know what efforts he had gone through to find her, but it must have been a lot.

She glanced back at Kihyun, to see him grinning. “You didn’t tell me _that_ part of the story,” he teased.

Rose found herself blushing.

Down the end of the block, hiding in another one of the cells, Shownu and Wonho listened to the mediators march in.

A voice could be heard. “On your feet, code-breakers,” the man demanded. “If you’re lucky this’ll be the last walk you do.”

Wonho’s heart jumped into his throat. They were going to be taken to be branded. His first instinct was to move, but Shownu was already way ahead of him. A pair of arms had wrapped around him, stopping him from bolting around the corner like he wanted to.

 “Let go,” he hissed, “I can take them.”

 “No, you can’t,” Shownu murmured back. “We need a plan, we can’t just barge out there with all those mediators.”

 “But-”

 “Take a deep breath, and think for a moment,” Shownu coaxed. “I know how much she means to you, but we need to be careful. This has to be calculated.”

Wonho tried to think. He really did, but all he could hear was the cell doors opening and the sound of feet stumbling on the concrete.

Once again, he’d been too late.


	8. Chapter 8

Rose had tried to come off as indifferent during her meeting with Advisor Im.

Whether she’d succeeded there or not, didn’t really matter at this point, because right now her heart was hammering in her chest. It was probably quite obvious to those around her that she was anxious as all hell.

Her and Kihyun had each been cuffed and were being escorted through the long corridors inside the Advisor’s hall, and Rose could feel her palms sweating already. It was dead silent, the only sound being the scuff of their feet on the concrete and the occasional clang of the chain between her handcuffs. They were eventually lead into the main chamber of the Advisor’s hall, when the mediator in front of her stopped.

He turned, glancing around, “Where are the others?”

 “Right here,” another responded from behind them. Rose turned, and saw another mediator walk into the chamber, leading someone behind him.

Her stomach dropped.

Trailing behind the other mediator, also cuffed, was Hyungwon. Rose had thought she wouldn’t get to see him, but there he was. Her heart filled with so many emotions in a matter of seconds, and they all intensified when he looked up, and saw her.

_‘I’m so sorry,’_ she wanted to say. ‘ _Please forgive me.’_

Hyungwon’s eyes had shown almost all the same emotions she’d been feeling, but finally, she saw him settle on something else. Acceptance.

It was like he knew what she wanted to say, and she knew what he would have said in return. _‘It’s okay,’_ the soft expression he gave her said, _‘I don’t blame you for this.’_

Just when she felt like she wanted to cry, another mediator appeared, shoving someone in the back to stand behind Hyungwon. Her third shock for the day, it was Minyhuk.

She remembered the last time she’d seen him – just yesterday, he’d turned his back on her in the square. It had hurt so much to see her friend do that her, and she just hadn’t understood why. But what was he doing here? How was he a code-breaker too?

That’s when Rose noticed, he looked about as badly injured as Kihyun had been.

He was looking at her in shock. He was just as surprised to see her as she was seeing him. His wide eyes then looked to the floor, and Rose couldn’t understand his expression. When he looked back up again, he didn’t look at her. He was looking at Kihyun.

That’s when it dawned on her; Kihyun had mentioned that he’d been trying to see a friend in the farmer’s village. Minhyuk must have been that friend.

Her heart was heavy as the mediators gathered them into a single line and they were lead out of the hall. Rose was at the front, followed by Kihyun, then Hyungwon and finally Minhyuk. They had one destination: the centre square.

There were lots of villagers gathered in the square going about their daily business, but when the mediators appeared, marching towards the gate, a few people stopped and looked.

Then when the horn sounded – something that nobody had heard in ten years - the entire city stopped.

‘Codebreakers’ the whispers began, rippling through the square and back out into the villages.

_‘To be branded, the scum who break the code will be branded.’_

Rose kept her head down as she was lead to the podium by the far end of the square, near the gates of the mediator’s village. She didn’t want to look up and see the faces of those she knew.

In the middle of the podium, was a post. From what Rose had read, many code breakers had died while still cuffed to this post. She did as she was told, holding her arms up so that the cuff on one wrist could be transferred to the pole. She could see in her peripheral vision that the other three were waiting over to the side, guarded by the other mediators.

Perhaps being the first was the best choice, as she wouldn’t have to go through watching the others suffer before her own branding. She couldn’t imagine being in Hyungwon’s shoes right now.

She then thought of Wonho. He must have done so much to get to her back in the cells of the mediator’s village. Him and Shownu were probably trapped in the building now, with all the mediators who’d been walking around. She only hoped that they could get out and escape like they had done before and wouldn’t have to witness any of this.

At least she’d been able to see Wonho one more time. She tried to think of the beautiful smile he had given her only minutes ago, as she heard the footsteps of the brander walk up behind her.

Changkyun stepped up onto the podium, and instantly he heard the villagers in the square begin to murmur. Yes, the advisor’s son himself was here to destroy the aura of this healer turned [C] codebreaker. As soon as this was done the only person who knew he was in that sanctuary would be the commander, and due to Advisor Im having his own dirt on the commander, the Im family name would be kept safe and untainted.

The advisor himself then stepped up onto the podium behind his son. He addressed the crowd, explaining how they’d had an influx in code breakers and – without explaining who they were or what they’d done – announced that they were all to be branded. Another reminder of how the mediators will always keep order.

Changkyun didn’t hear a word he said. He was standing behind Rose, his identity still unknown to her, and all he could think of was the day they had met.

Despite how lenient his father was now, he had been very strict when Kyun was a boy. While learning how to be a mediator, he’d had a lot of trouble picking up on things, and it infuriated his father.

One day, while in the square, the man had been so angry that it caused child Kyun to step back in surprise and bump into a tower of crates. They’d toppled over onto him, and the wood had scraped the side of his face and given him splinters. His father had rolled his eyes and told him not to be so weak hearted, walking away.

The owner of the crates hadn’t been too happy either, turning to scold the boy. They called him a nuisance and to piss off back to his village. Now quite upset, child Kyun had scurried away and hid behind a cart near one of the village gates.

His eyes were filling with tears at the thought of being such a failure of a mediator. Why couldn’t he just be like father and be a ruthless, demanding person nobody could turn down. But that wasn’t like him. Kyun could never be like that. He’d probably spend the rest of his life trying to impress his father only to fail.

 “Psst!”

He glanced up, wondering where that sound had come from, when he spotted a girl just inside the gates nearby. It must have been the Healer’s village from the looks of it. Her head was poking out from behind the wall, curious eyes gazing at him. She glanced at the mediator adjacent to her, before whispering to him.

 “Do you need help?”

Changkyun had blinked at her. It wasn’t a sentence he’d heard in his life. A mediator needing help? That was completely unheard of. He hadn’t been sure what to say, so she pointed to her own cheek.

 “You’re bleeding,” she whispered. He’d just sat there stunned. She thought for a moment, before glancing at the mediator again, and scurrying through the gates to the small space he was hiding in behind the cart.

 “Want me to show you something I’ve just learnt?” she asked quietly, hopeful eyes looking at him patiently.

He was still very confused at why she was here and talking to him, but he nodded silently. She smiled happily and healed the scrape on his cheek just like she’d been taught at school. When she was done, he touched his face with wide eyes.

 “Wow…thank you,” he said in amazement. He knew what healers could do, but he’d never actually seen or experienced it himself.

She beamed at him, “You’re welcome.”

 “But…” he voiced what he still didn’t understand. “Why did you help me? I’m a mediator. I thought everyone hated mediators.”

She shook her head, “Only mean ones. As long as you aren’t mean, I’ll always help.”

That day had been an eye opener for Changkyun. He’d realised he didn’t have to be like his father, nor did he want to. And thanks to that, he’d gained a lifelong friend.

But now he had to brand her.

When Advisor Im had finished speaking, he leant down to murmur in his son’s ear. “You know what to do, and if you stray from any of my instructions, I will not hesitate to put that rod to your own wrist, family name be damned. Understood?”

Changkyun swallowed and nodded.

When he stepped forwards, grasping the branding rod in his hand, his heart was pounding. He had his head down as he walked up beside Rose, but he couldn’t help but look up as she turned her head, and finally saw him.

She couldn’t hide the shock on her face at seeing him there, the branding rod in his hand. The past day or so, Rose had no clue where he was or what he’d been doing. The last place she’d expected to see him right now was here on this podium with her.

He’d frozen for a moment, as if her stare alone had immobilised him. It took Rose a few moments to recover from her shock, but when she did, she let out a long breath, and relaxed. After all, out of all the people it could have been, she realised that Changkyun was probably the person she would most prefer to be holding that rod.

So, she gave him a small smile, before turning her head to face the front, and closing her eyes.

 “Hey!”

A voice called out from the back of the crowd, causing everybody – the mediators, and the villagers gathered in the square – to turn and see who was shouting. Two hooded figures were standing at the other end of the square, and Rose almost gasped when they showed their faces.

It was Shownu and Wonho.

Somehow, they’d managed to get all the way out of the advisor’s hall and the mediator’s village, and had made their way over to the other side of the square without being noticed.

And now they had everyone’s attention.

Wonho had a shit eating grin on his face as he looked right at Advisor Im. “I heard you were looking for me,” he said.

Changkyun’s jaw had dropped, and he quickly glanced over at his father, who was visibly fuming.

 “Well?” the man looked to the other mediators on the podium, as if he didn’t even need to tell them, “Go get them!”

There had been a handful of mediators gathered on or by the podium, and after glancing around at one another, four of them set their sights on the pair.   

Rose had no idea what they were trying to do, but surely inviting all these mediators to come after them wasn’t a good idea.

Never the less, they both looked pretty confident in themselves.

When the real brawl started though, Rose was speechless. She’d never actually seen a Warrior in action before – not that they usually needed to fight each other – but Shownu was fast as lightning. The mediators couldn’t keep up with him. He had two of them swinging at him and he gracefully ducked and dodged around them. His gift really was something.

But Wonho was something else.

Watching the way that he moved, there was a noticeable difference from Shownu. His movements weren’t quite as graceful and certainly not as fast, but they were effective. Rose began to realise as she watched him, that the mediators could not have been prepared for this man because he was something completely new.

After all, he had the training of a Warrior, but the gift of an Engineer.

Where Shownu was fast, Wonho was powerful. Any other Engineer could easily throw their strength around, but none of them really knew what to do with it, which was where the mediators had the upper hand.

But if you taught an Engineer how to fight, you were digging yourself a hole. Wonho didn’t need speed on his side when he could plant himself in one spot and knock a mediator off their feet with the snap of a wrist. Rose wondered just how he’d managed to hide that kind of strength while training for all those years.

The entire square was occupied with watching the spectacle, including Rose, but Changkyun had just realised this was the perfect opportunity to turn this in their favour.

He didn’t even need to think about what he was going to do. It had been in his mind ever since his father had said he would be the one to brand Rose. He grasped the rod tight in his hand, and suddenly swung it out, away from Rose, and towards his father.

It didn’t hit his mark. But it smacked him in the neck, and he let out a raging cry. Rose had spun her head to see what had happened, but after the advisor had stumbled back, he’d set those hard, unwavering eyes on his son.

Changkyun had stood his ground, the rod still in his hands. He was ready to take on the man, but the other mediator who’d still been on the podium came right up behind him.

Rose was about to call out to Kyun, but in the next moment, someone had jumped onto the mediator’s back, cuffed hands swinging around to his neck.

It was Kihyun. The smallest of the prisoners, the Innovator was sufficiently choking the mediator with his own restraints.

 “There’s a weak spot in the chain,” Kihyun shouted over his shoulder to the others, “Put enough force on it and it’ll break.”

Rose looked down at where her wrist was cuffed to the post, her mind instantly trying to think of a way to get it to break. She looked around herself, but there wasn’t anything she could use. She let out a frustrated sound pulling on it uselessly– if she had Wonho’s strength she could break it. These chains weren’t made for an Engineer, after all.

Speaking of Engineers, Jooheon then made himself known over by the gate to the farmer’s village. The mediator’s who had been minding the gate had rushed over to try and apprehend Shownu and Wonho, leaving the gate wide open for Jooheon to rip it off its hinges.

 “Alright people, out of the way!” he shouted, lifting the huge steel gate above his head. If he was supposed to be causing a scene, he certainly was, as the occupants of the square began to scatter. Rose would have kept watching him, but she suddenly heard Changkyun cry out.

Snapping her head back over to him, she was just in time to watch her best friend get thrown off the podium by his father. He hit the concrete with a hard thud, and for a moment, he didn’t move.

 “Kyun!” she shouted in panic, but then there were other voices, and they were all calling out to her.

 “Rose!”

 “Look out!”

 “No!”

She’d barely had the time to turn her head before someone grabbed her wrist, and Rose’s eyes went wide as she saw Advisor Im, wielding the branding rod.

In one swift motion, he swung it around and straight down onto her mark.

Then, all she saw was white.


	9. Chapter 9

It was like a white-hot fire.

The burn of the branding rod spread from Rose’s mark to her entire body, setting her veins alight and blinding her vision. It was worse than anything she could have imagined.

Wonho had been making his way across the square when it happened. Having dealt with most of the mediators who’d come after them, Shownu had told him he could handle the rest and to go over to her. Their plan had been to draw the mediators away from the podium, so they had more of a chance of getting their friends, and it had worked perfectly, except for the fact that Advisor Im had still been there.

Just after Jooheon had hoisted the gate into the air, the crowds of people had all been trying to run back to their villages, and so as Wonho tried to get across the square to the podium, he was hoarded by people. Then, he’d heard it.

The gut wrenching cry that had passed Rose’s lips the moment she’d been branded. It rang in his ears, rattling him to his core. He could see it all – the Advisor grinning from ear to ear as he pulled the rod back, the shocked faces of their friends, the glassy-eyed look she had moments before she fell to her knees.

Pushing through the last of the villagers, his heart was in his throat. The same words were circling in his head, as they had been all day.

Too late.

He was always too late. 

His eyes never left her as she collapsed by the edge of the podium, her wrist still cuffed to the post. He was vaguely aware of Minhyuk and Hyungwon launching themselves at the Advisor, of Changkyun trying to pick himself up off the concrete, of Kihyun bringing down the mediator he’d been choking, but all he could see was her.

The girl who had risked everything to save him, lying in a heap on the podium, unmoving. The girl he had left, who he hadn’t been around to protect, who had been branded, because of him.

His throat had been burning. He’d been completely speechless for moments, the air sucked out of his lungs in shock, but he finally managed to say something as he bolted across the square.

 “Rose!”

She moved, then. As if she had heard him call out to her, she turned her head, and half lidded eyes tried to focus. When she saw him, she lifted her free arm, reaching out towards him.

 “Won…”

The second he reached her, he grabbed onto her hand. “Rose,” he breathed, cupping her cheek, wide eyes staring into unfocused ones. He’d had no idea what to do, and the only thing he could manage to say was her name. “Rose!”

She hadn’t been able to respond, her hand shaking within his. It looked like she was about to pass out.

Through his frazzled mind, he realised she was still cuffed to the post, and he quickly grabbed hold of the chain, and yanked on it. Just as Rose had guessed earlier, it broke into pieces.

Wonho had felt his mark react the minute he’d grabbed her hand, but even though he couldn’t read aura’s - he’d felt it. Something in him was screaming that something was wrong, that he needed to help her, but what could he do? Nothing could heal a damaged aura.

His heart was pounding with fear. He’d only just found her, he couldn’t lose her now. He looked to her wrist, and then reached out to turn it over. He could just see her mark, underneath the burn from the branding rod.

He could also see the purple that appeared in his presence.

It was like a book opening up in front of him, then. His own mind hadn’t come up with the answer, but suddenly he knew what he needed to do.

He didn’t waste another second. He just moved his hand back to her cheek, looking at those beautiful deep brown eyes, before leaning down and kissing her.

Up until that moment, Rose’s mind had been a cloud of disorientating thoughts and feelings, while the burn of the branding swept throughout her body. She’d never experienced something so painful.

But the minute Wonho had kissed her, everything had changed.

Her mark pulsed, an overwhelming response compared to what she’d felt when holding his hand, and it was like a beautiful calm swept over her in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly she was so aware of everything. Of how gently he was holding her, of how warm his hand was on her cheek, of how soft his lips were on hers. She could sense his aura, too, as if it were blanketing her, dousing the fire in her veins.

Wonho had felt it too, the way his mark reacted, spreading warmth through his entire being. It was the same sort of calm he had felt when he’d been back in that bed, tossing and turning in pain, before he’d grabbed her hand.

It had taken a few moments for Rose’s head to clear, but when she started kissing back, he almost felt dizzy with joy.

While they were lost in their own world, Kihyun, Minhyuk and Hyungwon had managed to restrain the Advisor, just in time for Changkyun to climb back up onto the podium. He’d picked up the branding rod with a flat expression on his face, and without saying a word, brought it straight down onto his father’s mark.

Advisor Im hadn’t thought he’d be able to do it, and so the shock on the man’s face was unforgettable. The boys let him go as he dropped to the ground, writing in pain and cursing them for all he was worth. Changkyun gave his father a pitiful look, “You deserve much more than that,” he spat, before turning away from him.  

When Kihyun had looked back over at Rose, his jaw had dropped. He jumped up, “Why now of all times-”

 “Wait!” Hyungwon threw his arm up, having noticed what was happening. “Something’s happening to her aura,” he said, hope filling his words. He then spun around to tell the others, “Don’t let anybody near them!”

 “Aye aye!” Jooheon said, carrying the gate over and planting it on the concrete in front of them. Shownu had since made his way over as well and was trying to keep the other mediators at bay who were trickling in through the gates one by one, having heard the Advisor’s cry. Kihyun had broken off one of his cuffs and was swinging it around as a weapon, while Minhyuk wielded a stray plank of wood that Jooheon had sourced for him.

It was chaos, but it worked.

Rose was vaguely aware of her friends shouting at each other as they worked in unison, but all she could focus on was Wonho, and how perfectly they fit together. She felt like she’d been given a shot of adrenaline straight to her veins, and when they pulled apart, both smiling, they didn’t need to look to know that their marks had completely filled in.

Wonho dropped his forehead against hers, his smile beautiful and breathtaking. “How do you feel?” he breathed.

At some point during their kiss, Rose had managed to sit up, and had been holding onto the front of his shirt like a lifeline. Now, she opened her hand so that it sat flat against his chest. She had a wonderful smile on her face, “On top of the world,” she replied.

Changkyun had been the first to notice that they were done. “Wonho, Rose,” he called out to them. “You guys good?”

Wonho didn’t look away from her eyes as he responded. “Yeah,” he said. “We’re good.”

 “Shall we do this then?”

Then, Wonho did look over at him, a wide grin on his face. “Absolutely.”

Rose glanced between them in confusion, “Do what?” she asked. She had no idea what would happen now. What were they going to do? This was chaos.

Still grinning, Wonho turned back to her. “You’re about to find out,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Can you stand?”

As Wonho helped Rose to her feet, Changkyun called out to the others. “Shownu!”

 “Way ahead of you,” the man replied, knocking out a mediator by the gates, before dashing through the crowd, towards the gates to the farmer’s village. He was already out of sight by the time Changkyun spoke again.

 “Jooheon!”

“Let’s get it!” The Engineer responded with enthusiasm, lifting the large steel gate again and running to the front of the group, swinging it around to clear all the people in their way.

“Kihyun?”

The Innovator had been on the back of another mediator, and as he brought him down to the ground, he grinned. “I have never been more ready,” he responded, jumping up and running over.

 “Minhyuk?”

 “Right behind you!” the Farmer replied, anticipating their next move with as much excitement as the others.

 “Hyungwon?”

The Healer had no idea what was going on, just like Rose, but he trusted his friends, and followed suit. “Coming!” He ran over to them, where Jooheon was blocking mediators with the gate, and Changkyun, Minhyuk, Kihyun were waiting, as Rose and Wonho caught up to them. “What do we do?” he asked.

Changkyun turned to look back at him. “Right now? We run.”

Just before they took off, Wonho turned back to look at the Advisor who was still on the ground, writhing in pain. “You know, a famous mediator once said, ‘to love one of another aura is to destroy that aura. And to be the one loved, is to be the one destroyed.” He smirked at the man, before lifting their joined hands. “I call bullshit.”

Then, they were off.

Jooheon was like a plough as they burst out of the centre square and into the farmer’s village. Any mediators in their path had been barrelled out of the way, leaving nothing but villagers, who scattered the minute they saw the group bolting down the main road. Jooheon had thrown the gate out of the way, letting Minhyuk and Changkyun lead the way as the seven of them ran for their lives.

Wonho hadn’t let go of Rose’s hand since they’d reunited, and the pair ran along with the rest of the group, hearing the shouts of mediators behind them.

 “I don’t understand,” Rose puffed as they ran.

Wonho turned to grin at her, “Don’t you?” he said. “How do you think Shownu and I escaped the city the first time?”

Rose’s eyes were wide as they finally approached Minhyuk’s farm, and they could see Shownu up ahead, having pulled a cart out of the shed, loaded with supplies. The horses were there too, saddled up and ready to go.

But that was impossible. Nobody could escape the city.

Then, she saw Shownu lift a fake garden bed, tossing it to the side. Underneath, was a huge trap door.

Realisation hit her in the next moment, just as her adrenaline from before began to run out. A tunnel. They’d made a tunnel under Minhyuk’s farm.

She wanted to yell out in triumph and praise them all for such an idea, but her energy suddenly dropped like a hammer. She tried to keep running, but her legs didn’t want to co-operate. As she began to stumble, she held onto his hand tighter. “Wonho-”

“Whoa!” He stopped just in time to catch her as her legs gave out, worry making his heart pound. “Rose-”

“Come on let’s go!” Minhyuk was yelling at them, and the mediators were still chasing after them.

Rose was clinging to him, “I-I’m fine,” she said, breathing heavily. “I just…”

“Come on,” Wonho threw her arm around his neck, before grabbing her behind the legs and hoisting her up into his arms. Her head dropped onto his collarbone in sudden exhaustion, and he ran up to the others, carrying her effortlessly.

Everyone was worried for her sudden drop in energy, but they needed to move. Minhyuk ran up to one of the horses, whistling as he jumped up into the saddle.

“Maxxie! Here boy!” he called. 

As everyone jumped into the cart Shownu had pulled out, Jooheon grabbed hold of the ropes and they were off into the tunnel, including the ball of fluff that had appeared and started running after them.

“Come on Max!” Changkyun called out to the dog, and he jumped up onto the cart with them.

Minhyuk was leading the way, his horse galloping on the dirt as he held a light out ahead of them. “Kihyun,” he called back to them, “Do you want to do the honours?”

 “Absolutely!” Kihyun sifted around in the supplies that were stuffed in the cart with them, before pulling out what looked to be a remote. “I have waited so long to do this,” he said with a grin. They could hear the mediators at the other end of the tunnel, shouting out to them. As soon as they passed a pre-marked part of the tunnel, Kihyun pressed the button on his remote.

BANG!

The roof behind them exploded, showering dirt and rocks into the tunnel, blocking the path. Everyone burst into cheers, as the end of the tunnel appeared in front of them, and they finally came out into the sun, the endless expanse of the world outside the city opening up in front of them.

While Kihyun started fawning over the pet he didn’t know Minhyuk had, Wonho was sitting in the corner of the cart, with Rose in his arms. She had one hand bunched in the front of his shirt, her head buried in his neck.

 “Talk to me,” he murmured, eyebrows creased in worry. “What’s wrong?”

After the excitement was over, Hyungwon saw the pair and quickly shuffled over. “Allow me,” he said, holding out his hand. Rose let go of Wonho’s shirt, so he could take her wrist. Kihyun, Shownu, and Changkyun looked on behind him, concern on their faces.

“You’ve been through quite the ordeal,” Hyungwon said softly, looking up at Rose. She gave him a small smile. He spoke louder then so everyone could hear him. “She was branded so her aura is damaged. But…Wonho’s aura seems to have mended it somewhat.”

“What?” Kihyun leaned forwards.

 “How?” Shownu asked.

Hyungwon nodded to Wonho’s wrist, and the man lifted it up, showing them his mark. It was completely filled in - the outline his purple, the centre her white.

“They’re soulmates,” Hyungwon said proudly. “You freaked out about the kiss, but what it did was seal their bond. It gave Rose enough energy to get away, but now it’s worn off.”

The fear had started pushing at Wonho’s chest again. “Will she be okay?” he asked.

Hyungwon looked back at his sister. “Yes,” he said, knowing his words reassured her, too. “But I imagine it’ll take some time. We’ve never known of a damaged aura being able to heal before, but I can definitely see that your aura is doing something.”

Wonho let out a sigh of relief. It reminded him of when he’d been in bad shape, but his aura itself hadn’t been damaged, it had just been rejecting the Warrior initiation. All he’d been able to do was wait it out. He supposed that’s all they could do now for Rose, too.

As they rode on through the forest that backed the city, Wonho held onto Rose as she began to grasp his shirt again. Now that her adrenaline boost had worn off, she was feeling the effects of the branding, and it wasn’t pleasant.

Wonho had one hand running through her hair, as the other held onto her hand, as she began to feel worse and worse. He was murmuring to her as the cart rattled along the dirt, the sound of the horses galloping echoing through the trees.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” he was saying. “It should have been me, I’m so sorry.”

At hearing that, she had to speak up, despite how exhausted she was. “Hey,” she breathed into his neck, “It had to be me.”

He looked down at her, “Why?” This was all his fault, she was making no sense.

 “Because,” she said, turning her head to look up at him, “I can’t carry you.”

He couldn’t argue with that, but he didn’t like it at all, so he just sighed and held onto her tighter. When she squeezed his hand, he turned and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “I’ve got you,” he whispered, “Hang in there.”

Hyungwon had been engrossed in patting Max, who was happily sitting in the middle of everyone, his tongue hanging out in the wind. The Healer had then turned to ask, “What now?”

 “Now?” Jooheon responded, turning from his spot at the front, leading the horse through the trees just behind Minhyuk.

“We ride.”


	10. Chapter 10

The first thing Rose noticed, was warmth.

She could already tell her whole body was far too stiff after lying in the same place for so long, but it was all she could do. When she shifted her limbs slightly, she managed to find the source of that warmth – a hand holding hers.

She was smiling before she’d even managed to open her eyes, rolling over towards where she knew Hoseok would be. When she hit something, she heard a chuckle.

She squinted an eye open, to see him sitting up beside her, after she’d rolled into his leg.

He was smiling down at her, “Morning princess,” he murmured.

With a smile still on her face she squeezed his hand, before letting go so she could stretch. She wasn’t in pain anymore which was a blessing, but she was constantly exhausted. “How long was I out for this time?” she asked him.

He reached out to brush the hair away from her eyes, “Hmm, not too long this time,” he responded. “Only two days.”

The first time, she’d been in and out of consciousness for a week, so this was progress. Not to mention, even though Hoseok’s presence had been undoubtedly helping, she still had a damaged aura, so the first few days alone had been hell.

But Hoseok had been by her side the whole time, just like she had been for him when they first met. It was strange, with their positions swapped like this, but Hoseok appeared to enjoy looking after her. He had previously mentioned that he needed to return the favour, after all. Last time Rose had been awake, she’d playfully accused him of just trying to get out of doing any work.

As she rolled onto her back again, she rubbed her eyes so she could see properly. She was met with the view of the roof. She’d been very disoriented when she’d woken up under this roof the first time, as she’d been out while it was being built.

Their bungalow was situated in the perfect spot. Hours away from the city, they’d travelled all the way out towards the mountains in the west, until they’d settled at the edge of the forest, with open fields nearby and access to the river that flowed down the mountain.

Their new home had been brilliantly designed by Kihyun and built by Jooheon – with the others help of course. Their little community was perfect with the number of villagers they had. Now if only Rose could stay awake for more than a couple of hours she could begin to enjoy it.

Another face then appeared, as they ducked in the door. “Hey, she’s awake,” Shownu said, smiling as he walked over. “How’re you feeling kiddo?”

Rose grumbled at her condition, turning on her side and grabbing Hoseok’s hand again. “Tired,” she said.

Shownu chuckled, “That’s new.”

She poked her tongue out at him.

Hoseok grinned, “You must be getting better if you’re this cheeky,” he teased, poking her side.

Rose made a noise of complaint, curling into a ball to avoid him poking where she was ticklish. He just smiled and reached out to comb fingers through her hair.

 “Hey Won- I mean Hoseok,” a voice called from outside, “Can you and Shownu come help me with these logs?”

It sounded like her brother. Hoseok had turned to look outside, before looking back at Rose.

 “Go on,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll be fine for a few minutes.” She was subtly making fun of him, but he knew how much she appreciated his presence. He just smiled and lent to press a kiss to her forehead, before him and Shownu walked outside.

She could hear them talking and moving things around, and was once again frustrated at being stuck here in the same spot. She’d never seen what their camp really looked like, and today the itch was the worst it had ever been. Usually Hoseok would be there to sternly tell her to stay put, but right now, he wasn’t.

In a few moments, she decided she was going to stand up. It took a lot of effort, and the wall was a major helper in pulling herself to her feet, but when she finally made it, she was so happy. But a moment after she was upright, she had to cling to the wall as a rush of dizziness overcame her. She’d gotten this far though, she couldn’t give up now.

One step at a time. It felt like an eternity. She hobbled over to the door, using the wall as a guide, and the light from outside was so bright she had to shield her eyes. When they focused, most of her weight was on the doorframe, but she finally caught a glimpse of their camp.

There was a pile of logs in the middle of the clearing, no doubt a fire pit, and some larger logs around it for them to sit on. Various items that had been in Minhyuk’s cart were scattered around the place, and the boys were currently bringing over more firewood. Rose finally pushed herself off the door frame and took a few tentative steps forward.

She couldn’t go much longer without them noticing her, though.

“Rose!” Shownu suddenly said, having noticed her out of the corner of his eye. “What are you doing?”

 “I’m fine,” she was saying, as if being on two feet for the first time in weeks was enough.

Hoseok had snapped his head around in the next moment, and in a second he was beside her, just in time for her to stumble. He caught her easily, and she had to lean all her weight into him.

 “You’re quite ambitious today,” he murmured in amusement.

 “I wanted to see outside,” she said, hanging onto him as if she could fall over any moment. She’d only moved a few metres, but it felt like she’d ran a marathon.

He smiled. “Well, all you needed to do was ask,” he said happily, before effortlessly lifting her into his arms.

Hyungwon had been sitting down on the other side of the fire pit. He patted the ground in front of him, “Bring her over here,” he said.

Hoseok carried her over to her brother, gently placing her on the ground. Hyungwon held out his hand, and she let him see her wrist as usual. The skin around her mark had been red and blistering when he’d first examined her weeks ago, but now it was just a very large scar. He could see the colours of her mark just below it. Every week, he could see more of it, as if it were trying to break through the scar. From what he could see, eventually that would happen.

 “No wonder the advisors worked so hard to keep the villagers apart,” he said, letting her go. “This renders their only punishment useless. You’re getting better every day thanks to Hoseok’s aura.”

Her soulmate smiled at her.

 “It doesn’t feel like it,” Rose grumbled, “I still can’t walk properly.”

 “Are you kidding?” Hyungwon said in amusement. “I couldn’t image you even attempting it last week, yet you made it all the way out the door. It’s progress, munchkin.”

She grumbled at her childhood nickname, and Hoseok just chuckled. She shuffled over to rest her head in his lap as Hyungwon and Shownu left to go find Minhyuk.  

 “Patience, princess,” he murmured, running fingers through her hair. “You’ll get there.”

She let out a long sigh, “How much longer is it going to take? I feel useless.”

 “However long it needs to take,” he responded. “We’ll wait with you.”

She knew that was all they could do, but she was so tired of this. When you spent your whole life helping people, you could do nothing but feel lost otherwise. She opened her hand, and he easily noticed, reaching out to entwine their fingers together. They stayed like that for a few minutes, the campsite peacefully quiet with the other villagers out doing their own thing. It was a kind of peace they’d never experienced before, way out here. It was a blessing.

Rose looked at their hands, spotting a small cut Hoseok must have received while moving the logs. Half out of habit and half out of hope, she moved to run her thumb over it.

Nothing happened.

Hoseok had noticed what she was doing, but couldn’t see her face, so didn’t know she was on the verge of tears until she spoke.

“My gift isn’t going to come back…” she mumbled sadly, “Is it?”

The way her voice cracked was a dead giveaway, and instantly Hoseok moved to comfort her. He gently pulled on her shoulder so that she rolled onto her back to look up at him. Her eyes were glassy, and her lip was trembling.

 “Hey…” he picked her up then, arranging her in his arms like the day they’d escaped the city in the back of Minhyuk’s cart. “Your gift isn’t everything, it’s no big deal if it doesn’t come back,” he assured her.

Her head dropped onto his collarbone, as the tears began to fall. “It was everything I was,” she cried, “Who am I if I can’t heal people?”

He could tell from the way it was suddenly pouring out now that this had been weighing on her mind ever since she was branded. Everyone knew that those who were branded lost their gift permanently, and from what Hyungwon had seen, it wasn’t likely that hers would magically return once her aura healed. The villagers’ place in society was all decided on their aura and in extension - the gift they held.

He moved his hand along her back soothingly, “When was the last time you used your gift?” he asked her.

She didn’t understand why he would ask her that. It wasn’t a matter of how often it was used, it was the fact it was a part of her and who she was. “When Kihyun and I were in the cells of the Mediator’s village,” she mumbled into his shirt, “I healed him then.”

 “And before that?” he asked.

She sniffed, trying to think. “On you…?” she asked, lifting her head to look up at him.

He was smiling softly at her, and he shook his head, “But you didn’t,” he said. “It wouldn’t work. Just like Hyungwon can’t use his on you right now.”

She gave him a confused look, “What are you trying to say?”

 “I’m saying that your gift doesn’t determine who you are. You spent weeks looking after me, breaking the code numerous times just to save my life - and you didn’t use your gift once. Doesn’t that say something alone about who you are?”

He brought a hand up to her cheek, wiping away the stray tears that had fallen. He knew how much it must have hurt for her to lose her gift, but she needed to know that she was still a whole person even without it.

 “You’re Rose,” he continued, giving her that beautiful smile that she loved. “A beautiful, caring, determined woman who doesn’t let anything stand in her way. Doesn’t matter if it’s a long-lost sibling, or a disastrous accident in the warrior camp, or a helpless man spitting blood everywhere. Everything you achieved was you.”

It took a few moments for his words to sink in. When they did, she didn’t know what to say.

Rose had been so scared this whole time, the idea of her gift never coming back having haunted her even in her sleep. They’d grown up with the idea of their auras and gifts being so important, it was ingrained in them from the day they were born.

But they weren’t in the city anymore. They didn’t need to rely on their given jobs, they didn’t need to follow the code. They had their own little community, and they could do whatever they wanted.

It had felt like she was missing a part of the puzzle that was herself, just by knowing that her gift wasn’t there, and yet Hoseok had just rearranged the pieces to fit.

She wondered in that moment, just what she would have done without him. She found herself smiling through her tears, as she leant her head back on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

She could learn to live without her gift. It would take time to get used to it, but she could do it. She had to.

...

Just like with Hoseok, it took a lot of time, and a lot of patience – which, admittedly sometimes wasn’t there – but eventually, Rose recovered. She’d managed to stay awake for longer and longer every day and was pushing her limits until she was well enough to run across the fields where Minhyuk had set up his new farm.

Which was what she was doing right now.

She spread her arms as the wind kicked up, blowing the hair off her face and out behind her. The sun was slowly descending in the west, sending streaks of pink and orange through the sky. Under the whip of the wind, not a single thing could be heard.

Except for Hoseok yelling behind her, that is.

“Wait!” he was shouting, trying to catch up. “You gave yourself a head start, that’s not fair!”

She grinned as she reached her destination, turning to give him a triumphant look. “It was never specified,” she threw back at him. “Your fault for taking me on,” she teased.

The agreement, as such, was simply a challenge of ‘last one to the field caries the other back’ and as soon as Hoseok had nodded, she’d bolted.

Just as he reached her, he hunched over to rest hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. She smiled and ruffled his hair, “Maybe next time, buddy.”

He grabbed her wrist, “First off,” he puffed, standing up straight again. “You wouldn’t be able to carry me without borrowing my gift anyway,” he pointed out. “Secondly, how do you know I didn’t let you win?” he said with a grin.

She met his grin with her own cheeky smile, using her other hand to poke his stomach. “Because you hate losing,” she said.

He couldn’t help the smile that was still on his face, but tightened his grip on her wrist, pulling her towards him, “You little…”

Rose suddenly blew air in his face, and he jerked back, letting her go. She was laughing as she darted over to the produce growing nearby, and he ran after her.

He hadn’t had the chance to see this playful side of her before, and now that they were out of the city and away from the code, it was an everyday thing, and he loved it. She was almost always smiling, and he would do anything to hear that musical laugh.

She’d stopped in front of one of the rows, and when he caught up to her, Hoseok grabbed her by the waist from behind. Just after she let out a surprised squeak, he placed his chin on her shoulder, “How are the Strawberries?”

She was looking at the plants intently, “I don’t think they’re ready yet,” she said. “We’ll have to check with Minhyuk.”

 “Where is he anyway?” Hoseok asked then, looking around. Jooheon had built the farmer a little shed to keep his tools in, but the door was closed and they couldn’t see him anywhere.

Rose turned around to face him, “He’s at the waterfall with Jooheon, they took the horses for a ride.”

Hoseok gave her a perplexed look, “Your aura reading can’t be that good,” he said in disbelief.

 “How do you know it’s not?” She said with a grin.

 “Because that’s a half hour ride away,” he said. “How do you know they’re there?”

She gave in with a sheepish look, “They told me before they left.”

He grinned, “I knew it.”

…

During Rose’s piggyback ride back to their camp, her and Hoseok had decided on another challenge. The talk of her aura reading skills had ignited a bet that she wouldn’t be able to find the others with it. What Hoseok wasn’t so aware of, was just how good she’d gotten at reading her friends aura’s in the time they’d been here.

 “See?” she said as they moved through the trees back to the clearing, “Hyungwon’s in the hammock.”

 “That’s a given, though,” Hoseok argued. Ever since they’d escaped the city, Rose’s adoptive brother had done a lot of sleeping. It wasn’t hard to guess where he would be at any given time.

Still on his back, Rose pointed through the camp in the other direction. “Fine, go that way then. I can guarantee that Shownu and Kihyun are at the river.”

 “What am I, your personal transport now?” he laughed as he started walking again.

Rose placed her chin on his shoulder, “Yep.”

He grinned as he manoeuvred through the trees, “I’ll be expecting payment for this, you know.” 

 “Are kisses acceptable?” she asked with a grin.

He made a show of thinking for a moment, “Hmm, I suppose they are.”

As he pushed a branch out of the way, Rose leant forwards. “Here’s your first instalment,” she said, happily planting a kiss on his cheek.

A large smile broke onto his face, and he turned his head towards her. “One more?” He asked sweetly, batting eyelashes at her.

She just laughed and leant forwards again, giving him a proper kiss on the lips. He was pretty satisfied with that.

After Hoseok carried her along the short trip through the trees to the river, they caught sight of two figures up ahead.

 “Told you,” Rose said straight away.

Hoseok shook his head, “We can’t see who it is, yet.”

Then, they heard a voice. It was laughter, actually. Bright and musical, and it sounded exactly like Kihyun.

As they finally broke through the trees, they saw him. He was sitting on the rocks by the edge of the river, a long stick in his hands. He was holding it out over the deep section of water with one hand as he pointed at Shownu who was standing in the shallows, pants rolled up to his knees.

“You’re not going to catch any fish like that!” he was saying.

Rose turned her head towards Hoseok. “Told you,” she repeated with a grin. His response was to let go of her so that she fell off his back. “Ow!” she said loudly as she hit the ground. He glanced down at her, and she pouted at him, “You don’t have to be mean just because I’m right.”

He gave her a playful smirk, “You haven’t won yet, Princess. There’s still three people to go.”

Kihyun then turned and noticed them, “Oh hey guys,” he said. “Dinner will be on me from the looks of it,” he said, holding up his makeshift fishing rod. Rose glanced over at Shownu, still standing among the rocks, as the water rushed over his feet. Just further down the river, the water flowed down off the rocks into the deep section Kihyun was fishing out of. Shownu had a stick in his hand as well, but it had been sharpened to a point at the end like a spear.

 “I don’t know,” Rose said, watching them both. “Shownu is pretty fast with that gift of his.”

Kihyun made a dismissive noise, having complete faith in his invention. “Not that fast.”

Hoseok shrugged, a grin on his face. “You’ve never tried sparring him, though.”

Shownu looked over at Kihyun then, flashing him a grin. He didn’t look quite so confident after that.

...

Next, they’d set off to look for Changkyun. As Rose had known him the longest – aside from Hyungwon of course – he was one of the easiest to read, so she easily lead Hoseok towards the base of the mountain, to find the mediator exploring the rock face.

 “Don’t die,” Rose said, walking up to the rock formation and looking up at her friend who had climbed a decent way up.

 “I can’t believe this,” Hoseok was muttering as he walked up behind her.

Changkyun looked over his shoulder and saw who had approached, flashing them a grin. “Dying wasn’t part of the plan, no.”

 “Good,” Rose replied, “Though it would be better having one less mouth to feed.”

Changkyun’s response was lightning fast, “That’s a lie.”

Hoseok chuckled as Rose glared up at her friend, “I thought you weren’t going to use that anymore!”

 “Sorry,” Changkyun chuckled, reaching a point on the rock face where he could sit on the edge. When he’d made himself comfortable, he gave her a grin, “Habit.”

Hoseok then turned to her again, “Alright, aura reader,” he said, “Who’s next?”

Rose thought for a moment, “Minhyuk and Jooheon are still too far away,” she said.

“Alright then,” Hoseok said, giving her a grin, “This time you can find me.”

“Find you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

“Yep,” he responded. “Give me ten minutes, and don’t you dare read my aura before then,” he warned, pointing a finger at her.

Rose smiled, “Alright,” she agreed. “You have ten minutes.”

As Hoseok bolted off through the trees, Changkyun began climbing back down the rock face. When he finally reached the bottom, jumping down to the ground beside her, he spoke as he dusted himself off.

 “You two are so disgustingly cute.”

Rose laughed, turning to him, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

…

Hoseok watched Rose walk through the trees below him slowly. He was up on a branch a few metres above her, and was almost certain she would walk around in circles trying to find him. As she walked directly beneath where he was, she stopped.

He held his breath.

 “Did you practice climbing trees as a Warrior?” she asked suddenly, before looking straight up, and catching him sitting on the branch.

He pouted, “I did, but obviously not well enough.”

She was laughing at his expression, “Your aura is one of the easiest to read now, you know.”

He sighed, “Yeah I should’ve guessed that.” He manoeuvred himself around on the branch, trying to figure out the best way to get down. He sat there for a minute.

 “Are you stuck?” Rose asked. The amusement in her voice was obvious as ever.

 “No,” he said defiantly. “Just thinking. I don’t want to jump to the ground from here.”

 “I could catch you,” she offered.

He looked down at her, “You’d need my gift to do that.”

 “Well then lend me your gift. It’s not often I’ll offer to carry you,” she added with a cheeky smile.

He thought for a moment, before deciding it would be a nice change of pace. “Alright,” he agreed, before reaching down toward her. She reached up, and they only just managed to brush fingers, but it was enough. She saw her mark change slightly, the purple becoming more prominent.

When she was sure she was ready, she held her arms out. “Alright, jump.”

He hesitated.

 “Do you trust me?” she asked.

 “Of course I do,” he responded. “Do you trust my gift?”

 “Absolutely,” she said. He seemed to be satisfied with that, so after a moment, he jumped off the branch.

A moment later, Rose caught him, his gift working perfectly and making it feel effortless. She had one arm securely under his back, the other holding his legs.

He smiled at her, “I’m impressed.”

 “Don’t be so surprised,” she said in response, as he laughed and put an arm around her neck. “It is your gift, after all.”

…

 “Minhyuk and Jooheon will be back in a minute,” Rose said, lying in the hammock that Hyungwon had since vacated as Hoseok piled logs onto the fire.

Hoseok he was pretending to be grumpy as he poked at the fire pit with a stick, not looking at her. “And how do you know that?” he asked.

Rose grinned, “I can sense their aura’s now that they’re closer.”

 “Can you now?”

 “Mhmm.”

He turned to her, then, a challenge in his eyes. “Well then can you guess the second before they arrive in the clearing?”

She was still grinning, “Of course. They’re arriving right now.”

In the next moment, voices could be heard, along with the sound of the horses trotting on the dirt.

Hoseok’s expression was a disappointed deadpan as Jooheon and Minhyuk finally appeared, with Max running into the camp behind them.

 “Hey Maxxie!” Rose called out to him, and the ball of fluff bounded over to her. She began making baby sounds at the dog as she patted him, and Jooheon raised an eyebrow at Hoseok.

 “Why the long face, dude? I’ll mistake you for one of the horses,” he joked.

Rose looked up, “He’s sulking because I’m right.”

Changkyun laughed as he walked out from the bungalow, having overheard the conversation. When he passed the firepit, he pat Hoseok on the head, “Face it buddy, she’s always going to be right. Healers are amazing at reading aura’s.”

“What about Hyungwon?” Minhyuk asked curiously, nodding his head over to the man who was now lying in the grass nearby.  

 “I can read,” he responded, waving a dismissive hand in the air. “Just not as well as Rose. I never practiced enough.”

Hoseok stood up and walked over to the hammock, pouting. “Is there anything you can’t do?” he asked her.

She regarded him for a second. “I can’t heal people,” she responded.

It had taken almost as long as her aura healing for her to accept that her gift wasn’t going to come back and be okay with it. Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t wish for it to magically come back almost every day.

 “Oh, but you can,” he said then, looking down at her as she lay in the hammock. She raised an eyebrow at him. He gave her a cheesy grin, putting a hand against his chest, “You healed this lonely heart.”

She snorted, “Shownu wasn’t good enough company for you?”

He dropped his hand, “I can’t cuddle Shownu.”

She shrugged, “I dunno, if you asked nicely enough-”

He interrupted her before she could continue by pushing against her shoulder, “Shove over, I want in.”

Rose didn’t move. “And if I don’t want to?” she asked innocently.

He gave her a devilish grin, “Then I’ll squish you.”

That made her change her mind. “Valid point.”

She shuffled over so he could climb into the hammock as well, and they rearranged themselves so that they were comfortable. The hammock was gently swinging back and forth now from all of the movement, and Rose’s head was resting on Hoseok’s chest, his arm comfortably wrapped around her.

They could hear the others chatting and shuffling around the camp as the sky began to grow darker. Kihyun and Shownu arrived back at camp with the fish that they’d caught – a tie apparently – and they began to prepare them to have for dinner. Hyungwon and Minhyuk were having a debate over what part of the bungalow to upgrade next, and Jooheon and Changkyun were giving all their attention to Max who was sitting happily between them.

The glow of the fire was a soft luminescence on the trees around them, and the sound of Hoseok’s heart beating was soothing to her ears. It was out here, far away from the city and the code, that she felt the most relaxed she’d ever been, despite the fact there were more people here than she’d ever lived with before.

She’d reunited with her long lost brother, discovered her soul mate, and was now surrounded by wonderful friends that she’d barely had the chance to see before. In the grand scheme of things, her gift wasn’t such a bad trade for all of this.

It was while she was lying in the hammock with Hoseok, seeing the gentle flicker of the fire and listening to the steady beating of his heart and chatter of their friends, that she began to feel the urge to take a nap.

 “You’re too good of a pillow,” she mumbled. “I’m gonna fall asleep at this rate.”

He smiled, looking down at her. “And sleeping in my arms is a bad thing because…?”

 “I won’t be awake to enjoy it,” she responded.

He chuckled, and she heard the deep sound reverberating through his chest. He lifted his hand to comb fingers through her hair. “Go to sleep, Princess,” he murmured. “We’ve got all the time in the world. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

He could tell she was smiling, and he had his own goofy grin on as he saw her move her hand, looking for his. When their fingers intertwined, the familiar warmth spreading from their marks throughout their bodies, Hoseok pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

Wrapped up in his embrace, it took only minutes for Rose to fall into a comfortable slumber, but just before she was under, she heard another murmur that made her heart swell with happiness.

“I love you.”


End file.
